(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Chicago woman who co-founded Soft Sheen -- one of the largest manufacturers of Black hair-care products in the country -- has died at the age of 93.
It was in 1964 when Bettiann Gardner and her husband Edward started Soft Sheen products.
"She was unapologetically herself and very genuinely so," said Terri Gardner, daughter of Bettiann Gardner.
"You'd go in her office, and she had a sofa in there, and she had stuffed animals. She had these stuffed white tigers on the sofa in her office," she said. "She didn't care what anybody said about this family of tigers on her sofa."
Bettiann Gardner was also the first female co-owner of the Chicago Bulls.
But her daughter Terri says a larger focus of her life was Soft Sheen and her family.
"It was really a kind of good role model for me in a lot of ways to see that you can be yourself and you don't have to explain it to anybody."
Bettiann Gardner died from complications of Alzheimer's.
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