Sarah Tomerlin Lee Dies

Sarah Tomerlin Lee, whose 50-year career included stints as vp of display at Lord & Taylor and editor of House Beautiful, died in New York. She was 90.

From 1960 to 1965, she was a vp at Lord & Taylor, in charge of advertising, promotion, display and public relations.

She came to New York in 1936, after having written advertising copy for her fatherÕs Utica, N.Y., store. That led to her first job, in the advertising department at Bonwit Teller. In the ensuing years, she worked as an advertising executive with Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden, and also as an editor for Vogue and HarperÕs Bazaar.

Her husband, Tom Lee, was display director at BonwitÕs and one of the industryÕs earliest advocates of using surrealism in visual merchandising. He was a friend of Salvador Dali, and was the person who bailed Dali out of jail after the artist threw a bathtub through a store window following a dispute over the controversial display he had created for Saks Fifth Avenue.

Her husband started Tom Lee Ltd., a design company, in the 1940s, and she took over the firm following his death in an automobile accident in 1971. Under her leadership, the firm built a specialty for hotel interior design, working on the Helmsley Palace in New York, the Willard in Washington and the Bellevue in Philadelphia. From 1993 to 1997, she was head of the interior design division of Beyer Blinder Belle. She also edited the book ÒAmerican Fashion: The Life and Times of Adrian, Mainbocher, McCardell, Norell, TrigereÓ for the Fashion Institute of Technology.

She was president of The Fashion Group in the early 1960s, and also president of The Decorators Club. She was a trustee of the New York School of Interior Design and a founder of the New York Landmarks Conservatory. She was named a designer of distinction by the American Society of Interior Designers in 1990.