Victory Over Descendants
Rose Blumkin,
who founded the Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1937,
helped her son and
grandchildren
build it into the nations' largest home furnishings store,
and continued selling carpet there well past her 100th birthday,
died Friday in Omaha.
She was 104.
Mrs. Blumkin's nominee for the nation's greatest businessman was her
son, Louis,
who became her major ally
in running the Furniture Mart
after returning from military service in World War II.
Like her, he typically put in seven-day, 70-hour workweeks.
But she began to feel
frozen out of decisions as her
grandchildren,
Irving and Ronald Blumkin,
became more involved in the 1980's.
She bitterly "retired" in 1989 at the age of 95,
but after three months returned with characteristic combativeness,
setting up a
rival store called
Mrs. B's Clearance and Factory Outlet
across the street from the Furniture Mart.
By 1991, it had become profitable and was
Omaha's third-largest carpet outlet.
She later sold it to Warren Buffet.
Mrs. Blumkin's husband died in 1950. She is survived by Louis.
© 2003 Daniel X. O'Neil
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