New Calendar Girl

Yvette Hennig Ward is a chic and vigorous woman of 48 whose specialty for years has been refurbishing the 63 regional offices of St. Paul's Brown & Bigelow with the classy decor suited to the world's biggest manufacturer of advertising calendars and novelties. Last week Yvette Ward got the chance to use her woman's talent for refurbishing on an even grander scale. A week after the death of her husband, B. & B.'s President Charles A. Ward, she moved into his place as president. Hardly had she slipped her trim, horsewoman's figure (124 Ibs.) behind her husband's curved desk than she let everyone know that she meant to be no figurehead, but a hard-headed boss.

"If you're going to be president," says Mrs. Ward, "it's important for people to know that you are." She hinted that she had definite changes in mind for the company, but discreetly added that she does not intend to "rock the boat--yet." She has also taken over the top post in sales, will later delegate sales supervision to a vice president, "but he must prove his worth." Says Mrs. Ward: "It's a man's world, and I'm not sure that isn't the way it should be. So what happens is that a woman always works a little harder to prove a point. I don't have a bit of awe about the job. I'm very confident."

Color in the Zoo. Yvette Ward's career gives her reason for confidence. A onetime vaudeville dancer, teacher and secretary, she met her husband when she visited his home in 1935 to advise him on interior decoration. Ward put her on one of his most spirited horses--"He wanted to see if I could stay on. I just decided I would. I was like a burr on the horse's back. But he finally decided that if a horse couldn't get rid of me, he couldn't either." They were married in 1940.

Ward was an ex-convict (Leavenworth on a narcotics charge) who had gained respectability and success as president of B. & B., which grew under him from a $2,000,000 gross to $59 million last year. Yvette Ward's first big job for his company was redecorating the conservative, antique-filled lobby of the main plant in St. Paul. Recalls she: "I went extremely modern, but before the paint was dry, the executives were crying that I was ruining the place. My husband told them to stay out of the lobby until it was done. Then they loved it."

She moved actively into business in 1943 as a director of the company. She has traveled widely (Russia in 1956, India in 1958), paints, is an author of two travel books, an amateur photographer and a pianist. When her husband was head of a citizens' committee to aid St. Paul's Como Park Zoo, she sold the idea of painting the cages in colors that contrasted with the animals' coats. When a local weekly refused to support a hospital fund-raising drive with the enthusiasm she expected, she bought it and became publisher. She came out with strong editorials against Senator Joseph McCarthy, won a campaign to keep taverns open on Sunday.

Study the Man. With her four children (one by a previous marriage), B. & B.'s new president lives on an 1,800-acre estate about twelve miles from St. Paul. As soon as she can find time, she will tour all the company's offices to spur on B. & B.'s managers. It should not be hard. She has decorated all their offices, and "when I do a man's office, I study the man [Cape Cod setting for the tweedy type, Western for the outdoor type]. Sizing up all these managers and sales managers has given me a good idea of what they're like."

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