Ellen Stewart

Ellen Stewart (November 7, 1919 – January 13, 2011) was an American theatre director and producer and the founder of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. During the 1950s, she worked as a fashion designer for Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor, and Henri Bendel. Early life Ellen Stewart's place of birth is either Chicago, Illinois or Alexandria, Louisiana. This uncertainty stems from Stewart's reticence to reveal details of her early life. As an observer wrote, "Her history is somewhat difficult to sort out—indeed it takes on a legendary quality—since on different occasions she gives different versions of the same stories." Stewart said that her father was a tailor from Louisiana and her mother was a teacher, and that they divorced during her youth. Around 1939, Stewart may have become the second wife of Larry Lebanus Hovell (August 10, 1910October 1963), a Chicago waiter who was a native of Alexandria, Louisiana, though it is possible they never wed legally. They had one child, a son, Larry Lebanus Hovell, II (1940–1998). Career Stewart moved to New York City in 1950, where she worked as a trimmer in the brassiere-and-corset department at Saks Fifth Avenue and later as a dress designer under the direction of Edith Lances, head of the custom-corset department of the store. Stewart continued to work as a fashion designer throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Most notably, she worked for a manufacturer named Victor Bijou, designing "sport dresses and beach wraps".