Advertising executive and author Lois Wyse died Friday at her Manhattan home of stomach cancer. She was 80.Perhaps best known for her famous slogan, With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good, Wyse -- who founded Wyse Advertising with her first husband Marc and went on to win the J.M. Smucker Company account -- was also the brains behind this name: Bed, Bath & Beyond. The small retail chain began as Bed and Bath. Wyse thought it would fare better with a more complete name.
Wyse was a powerful woman in business. Her company was chosen to create the first television advertising campaign for New Woman magazine. She was was the first woman on the board of the Consolidated Natural Gas Company and the Higbee Company, and she was a founding member of both the Committee of 200, a group of women with executive jobs, and of Catalyst, a women's research organization.
Wyse was also a mighty writer. She authored more than 65 books, and made her mark with nonfiction, poetry, and children's stories. She wrote a column for Good Housekeeping -- called The Way We Are -- and wrote the lyrics for the Broadway musical Has Anybody Here Found Love? Her most popular and best-selling book -- Funny, You Don't Look Like a Grandmother (Crown, 1989) -- came at a bittersweet time. Just before it was released, her second husband, Lee Guber, died of cancer.
Wyse is survived by her daughter, Katherine Goldman; her son, Robert; a stepson, Zev Guber; and eight grandchildren.
