It's an all-American story.
A small town boy makes his dreams come true by working hard and taking care of his family.
For the Williams family, the hero of this story is Kentuckian Tom Lyle Williams.
Born in Morganfield, Kentucky.
Tom Lyle went on to found a cosmetics company.
You may have heard of Maybelline.
And your eyes, too, can be beautiful when you use Maybelline.
All the guys make eyes at a girl who lives on Love River Mayberry.
When people hear the name Maybelline, they think of it as a corporate.
When we think of Maybelline, we think of family.
Tom Williams was about 14 years old when he decided he want to be an entrepreneur.
He just needed something, a good idea.
And he tried several things that failed.
And then one night he walked in and his sister Mabel, had accidentally singed her eyebrows and eyelashes, and she put a concoction of, I wouldn't say coal dust and Vaseline together.
And she went over her eyebrows and her eyelashes.
And Tom Lyle had been working at the Nickelodeon for the first time, and the silent film stars were for the first time, as you know, doing a close up on themselves and showing the one feature of the face that had been ignored.
Your eyes, which is the eyes.
They had lip rouge and they had, you know, all powders and everything, but it was considered vanity to put anything under your eyes.
And many husbands said, Do you wear that on the street?
And I'm divorcing you.
So he saw her and said, Is there anything like that on the market?
She said, I don't think so.
So he put a chemistry.
His friend had a chemistry set.
They concocted it.
They called it lash blowing in the beginning.
It went over big and women began to say, Can you put some dark hair in it?
Which he did, and changed the name to Maybelline in honor of his sister, who gave him the idea.
He never forgot where he was from.
He always helped those that were in need.
And to me, that is a true hero.
Yes.
I'm by myself.
Very good morning for you.
The week of September 24, December 30th may be May when it is very important for your baby.
It was one of those things we wanted to kind of keep quiet.
When I was in seventh grade, eighth grade, all through high school, you didn't want to say too much because everybody else's parents were working.
So I was also told very young that we don't tell anybody about Maybelline.
We don't want anyone to kidnap you.
And it was they were very real about that.
Well, I know that when I was writing the book, my father and his cousins weren't that into it, right?
No, no.
My dad was very nervous, and the book was published after my father died.
So, yeah, it is big, but I've done.
I think I did the right thing.
I mean, it's like being here would never have happened.
Now, welcome to Maybelline.
And my dad used to talk with reverence about Morganfield and his dad and get weepy eyed.
And so for me to get to come here and finally go, now I get it come true.
It would never have happened if I didn't take that risk and write that book and.
Always write that book.
Tom While Williams sold Maybelline in 1967.