Martha Stewart was born as Martha Helen
Kostyra on August 3, 1941 in the state of New
Jersey. From a young age Martha learned the
art of homemaking from her mother who
cooked, sewed, keep house, and cared for
Martha and her 5 brothers and sisters. Her
father started teaching her gardening when she
was only 3 years old.
In college Martha Helen Kostyra studied
chemistry. It was at this time that she met and
married Andrew Stewart. She took his name and
became Martha Stewart. During and after
college Martha Stewart worked as model and
even appeared in several television commercials
In 1976, Martha Stewart started a catering
business. She ran this business in the basement
of her home. Within 10 year this little,
farmhouse-run business became a million dollar
company. In 1982 Martha published her first (of
many) books. This book, Entertaining was an
instant success. She was soon producing video
tapes, dinner music CDs, television specials and
dozens of books. She soon turned herself into a
major TV personality and became known as a
"lifestyle expert".
In 2004 Martha was caught in a Wall Street
trading scandal. She went to trial and was found
guilty. That year Martha spent 4 months in prison
in Alderson, West Virgina. After serving her time
in prison, she had to spend another 5 months in
house arrest. During this time she was only
allowed to leave her property for 48 hours a
week and she had to wear an electronic ankle
bracelet transmitter to check her location at all
times.
Martha has now made a full comeback in her
career. She continues to star on television and
publish books and is more popular than ever.
