At the age of 14, Sarah married Moses McWilliams and at 17 she gave birth to her only child, Lelia. Her husband died in 1887 when she was 19. Instead of moving back in with her sister, Sarah set off for St. Louis, where laundress jobs were plentiful and fairly well paid. For the next 17 years, Walker supported herself and her daughter as a washerwoman.

She went through a brief second marriage and joined the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. It was at the church that she came upon successful, well-educated African Americans, and as a result, began to consider how to better improve her appearance. In her thirties she found that her hair was beginning to fall out. She experimented with hair products already on the market, b

Madam Walker's business was carried on by her daughter and is still in operation, although no one in the Walker family is currently associated with the firm. In 1927, construction of the Walker Building was completed in memory of Madame C.J. Walker. It is a proper tribute to a woman who once declared, "Perseverance is my motto!"

By 1917, Walker agents were holding yearly conventions, learning new techniques and sharing experiences. One agent wrote: "You opened up a trade for hundreds of colored women to make an honest and profitable living where they make as much in one week as a month's salary would bring from any other position that a colored woman can secure."

By the time she died in 1919 on May 25, the 51-year-old former laundress had become one of the wealthiest businesswomen of her day and the first African-American woman that became a self-made millionaire. She helped improve hair care for African American women and offered hundreds a way to make a decent and profitable living.

In 1908, Walker and Lelia settled in Pittsburgh where they established a training facility for the Walker System of Hair Culture. Sarah continued to tour the country, promoting her business and hiring hairdressers and door-to-door sales representatives. She recruited and trained a national sales force. Walker's agents taught these women to set up beauty shops in their homes, keep business r

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