Business
Soft Sheen co-founder, civic leader Edward Gardner dies at 98
Beloved Chicago philanthropist Edward Gardner, the co-founder of Soft Sheen Products hair care company, died Monday at age 98, CBS News reports.
Gardner and his wife Bettiann founded the company in 1964. By the late 1980s, the company was one of the largest Black-owned beauty brands in the country. Gardner sold the business in 1998.
Born in 1925 to a warehouse worker and a seamstress in the West Chesterfield neighborhood, Gardner was a teacher and administrator for several years in Chicago Public Schools during a time when he was getting his hair care line off the ground. As a side job, Gardner would personally deliver the products out of the back of his car to beauty salons on Chicago’s South Side, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
As an activist and civic leader, Gardner raised $300,000 with Soft Sheen’s resources 40 years ago, according to a news release.