Alice Sheets Marriott

(October 19, 1907 - April 17, 2000)

In 1927 Alice Sheets Marriott and her late husband J.Willard Marriott opened a nine-stool root beer stand, which was the start of the Marriott Corporation. The Marriott Corporation today is one of the leading hospitality companies, with annual sales of over $2 billion dollars.

Alice was born on October 19, 1907 in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the age of 19 she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from the University of Utah. Two days after graduation she married J. Willard Marriott and they moved to Washington, DC where Mr. Marriott had opened the A&W Root Beer Stand. Alice was the bookkeeper for the business. With root beer sales slowing down as fall approached, Mrs. Marriott came away from the Mexican embassy with the recipes for chili con carne and hot tamales. These items were added to the menu and the root beer stand became "The Hot Shoppe", a popular family restaurant.

The Marriott Corporation today consists of five separate companies, Marriott International Inc., Host Marriott Corporation, Sodexho Marriott Services, Crestline Capital Corporation, and Host Marriott Services. The Marriott's had two sons and both are top executives in the Marriott Corporation.

Mrs. Marriott was Vice President of the company and played an extremely active role in the corporation. She was considered the pace setting matriarch of the Marriott holdings. In a time where wives were usually in the background, Mrs. Marriott was a full and active partner in the development of what the Marriott Corporation has become today.

Besides her very active involvement with the corporation, she was very devoted to raising her two sons. Even with the demands and time needed to perform these tasks she was still very active in many civic and charitable organizations. She was a trustee for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as a member of the Goodwill Industries Guild, International Neighbors Club and the honorary board of the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse.

On April 17, 2000 Alice Sheets Marriott passed away at the age of 92. The company that her and her late husband founded personified the "American Dream."

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