Lilly Pulitzer was born to a socialite family in Roslyn, New York in 1931; Lilly Lee was her nickname among her friends. She was a middle child with an older sister, Mary Maude (called Memsey) and a younger sister Florence Fitch (Flossie).

She attended the Chapin School in New York City, along with the Bouvier sisters, Jacqueline and Lee. In 1949, she graduated from Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. She attended the college-cum-finishing school Finch in New York City, but left after one semester to work as a midwife’s assistant in West Virginia and as a volunteer at the Veterans Hospital in The Bronx.

In 1950, she eloped with Peter Pulitzer, the grandson of publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Together, they settled in Palm Beach, Florida, where they enjoyed a bohemian lifestyle – at least by the standards of Palm Beach at the time (entertaining in the kitchen, walking barefoot down Worth Avenue). The attractive young couple made Palm Beach their year round home where they raised three children (Peter, Liza and Minnie). Peter owned several Florida citrus groves, and with produce from the groves Lilly opened a juice stand on Via Mizner, just off Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.

In the course of working at the juice stand, Lilly found that squeezing juice made a mess of her clothes. Seeking to camouflage the juice stains, Lilly asked her dressmaker to design a sleeveless shift dress made of bright, colorful printed cotton. Lilly loved the dress that was produced for her, and it would later become her “Classic Shift Dress.”

Lilly quickly found that customers loved her dress, so she had her dressmaker produce more in order to sell at her juice stand. Soon, however, she was selling more dresses than juice, so she decided to stop selling juice and instead focus on designing and selling what had become known as her “Lillys.” Jackie Kennedy, then the First Lady, Lilly’s friend and classmate from Chapin and Miss Porter’s School, was one of the first celebrities to sport Lilly’s shift dress, and was featured in Life Magazine wearing one. Lilly’s shift dresses suddenly became a fashion sensation.

In 1969, Lilly and Peter were divorced. She married Enrique Rousseau shortly thereafter. Although she legally changed her name to “Lillian McKim Rousseau,” her clothing company continued to operate under the “Lilly Pulitzer” label with amazing success. Lilly continued to enjoy Palm Beach life, watching her children and grandchildren grow up. Enrique died from cancer in 1993 just as the fashion label was revived.