Estée Lauder was an American businesswoman and co-founder of the multibillion-dollar cosmetics company Estée Lauder Inc with her husband, Joseph Lauder. She was listed as one of the 400 richest Americans by Forbes magazine in the 1990s. She died on this day in 2004 at the age of 97 due to cardiac arrest at her home in Manhattan, New York. Estée Lauder