Nancye Radmin | |
Birth Name: | Nancye Jo Bullard |
Birth Date: | August 4, 1938 |
Birth Place: | Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
Death Place: | Lakeland, Florida, United States |
Occupation: | Businesswoman |
Nancye Radmin (August 4, 1938 – December 8, 2020), born Nancye Jo Bullard, was an American businesswoman, owner of The Forgotten Woman, a national chain of shops for plus-size clothing.
Nancye Jo Bullard was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and raised in Cochran, Georgia, the daughter of Joe Dykes Bullard Jr. and Jane Johnson Bullard. Her parents had a peanut, pecan, and cotton farm; her mother was a registered nurse. Bullard attended but did not graduate from Middle Georgia College.[1] [2]
Bullard moved to New York City in the 1960s, and was a secretary before she married. In 1977, Radmin opened The Forgotten Woman boutique on the Upper East Side, to sell high-end designer clothing[3] in larger women's sizes,[4] [5] including lingerie, accessories, jewelry, and shoes.[6] "They had all these myths that fat ladies don’t buy expensive clothes", Radmin said in a 1988 interview. "Well, they do. And a lot of ’em".[7] The chain extended to 25 shops across the United States by 1991,[8] [9] including locations in suburban Detroit,[10] West Palm Beach[11] and on Rodeo Drive.[12] Her business counted celebrities including Oprah Winfrey among its clientele.[13] In 1990, Savvy magazine ranked The Forgotten Woman among the top 60 American businesses owned and run by women.[14]
In 1991 Radmin stepped down as president of the company,[15] and in 1993, she left the company.[16] The chain folded in 1998. Radmin also worked with Vogue Patterns on a line of plus-sized patterns.
Nancye Jo Bullard, raised a Southern Baptist, converted to Judaism when she married widower Mack Radmin, a meat wholesaler, in 1968. She had two sons, Brett and William. She was widowed when Mack Radmin died in 2006;[17] she died in 2020, aged 82, in Lakeland, Florida.