Leslie Goodard to Portray Lilly Pulitzer

Historian and author Leslie Goddard will portray the American entrepreneur, fashion designer and socialite Lilly Pulitzer on Saturday, April 5, 2025 at the Geneseo Public Library. 

Lilly Pulitzer eloped with Herbert Pulitzer, Jr. (the grandson of Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher after whom the Pulitzer Prize is named) in 1950.  The couple settled in Palm Beach, Florida shortly after their marriage.  They owned several orange groves, and consequently, she opened a fruit juice stand there.  While working at the stand, she found that squeezing juice made a mess of her clothes, so she asked her dressmaker to design a dress that would camouflage the stains.  She discovered that customers loved her dresses, so she began to sell them there as well.  Soon she was selling more dresses than juice.  This lead to her focusing on dress design.  Her dresses had become known as her “Lillys.”

She became president of her own company, Lilly Pulitzer, Inc. in 1959. The main factory was in Miami, and the fabrics were produced by the Key West Hand Print Fabrics Company. Her dresses were very popular from the 1960s to the early 1980s, and were worn by Jacqueline Kennedy and members of the Rockefeller and Vanderbilt families.  After Jackie Kennedy was featured in Life magazine wearing one of Pulitzer’s shifts, many preppy ladies followed her lead.  Lilly later stated that the first shift dress Jackie Kennedy was photographed in was made of kitchen curtains.  But by 1984, the entire clothing operation was closed.

In 1993, the rights to the brand were purchased by Sugartown Worldwide Inc., who contacted Pulitzer in the hopes of reviving it.  Today the company maintains 75 Lilly Pulitzer Signature Stores. The brand is also sold in major department stores such as Lord and Taylor, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. The company is now owned by Oxford Industries Inc.

Lilly and Herbert Pulitzer had three children.  The two divorced in 1969, and shortly after, she married Enrique Rousseau. Enrique died in 1993.  Lilly passed away at the age of 81 in 2013.

Goddard writes and lectures on American cultural history, with particular expertise in women's history. She holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies and an M.A. in Museum Studies. In addition to her own stint as a Marshall Field's sales associate, her grandfather worked at the State Street store for 26 years, serving as merchandise manager for linens and manager of the Far Eastern buying office.

Leslie Goddard is well known in this area for her character portrayals such as Lucille Ball, First Ladies Mary Todd Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson; aviator Amelia Earhart, and Audrey Hepburn.