MARTHA STEWART Success & Scandal SURVIVING IN STYLE

THE DOMESTIC DIVA HAS FOUND BOTH FAME AND MISFORTUNE.

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BUT HER GREATEST FEAT MAY VERY WELL BE MASTERING THE ART OF REINVENTION.

MARTHA STEWART didn't set out to be the arbiter of American taste. After graduating from Barnard College in 1963, she began working as a stockbroker on Wall Street. But after giving birth, the new mom left New York City to raise her daughter, Alexis, with her thenhusband, Andrew Stewart, in Westport, Conn. "I was living two very distinctly different lives," she's explained.

"And the life of the homemaker was more interesting to me than the life on Wall Street." Martha, now 84, started an at-home catering company, which quickly grew into a multimillion-dollar business and led to the publishing of her first book, Entertaining, in 1982.

"That really changed my life," she's said. "I found my voice and I think I'd found my career."