{{Short description|American interior designer (1923–2014)}} {{Infobox person | birth_name = Betty Lewis Stevens | birth_date = {{birth date|1923|4|18}} | birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, US | death_date = {{death date and age|2014|5|12|1923|4|18}} | death_place = Manhattan, New York City, US | occupation = Interior designer }}
'''Betty''' '''Lewis Sherrill''' (née '''Stevens'''; April 18, 1923 – May 12, 2014) was an American interior designer. She was the president of the firm McMillen's, succeeding Eleanor Brown.
== Biography == Sherrill was born on April 18, 1923, in New Orleans, to architect William Lewis Stevens and Sybil Wilkinson Stevens. She is a descendant of politician Fielding Lewis. She attended the McGehee School, then graduated from H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College. She married Howard Virgil Sherrill<ref>{{Cite news |date=26 July 1997 |title=Family |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1028767334/?match=1&terms=Betty%20Sherrill |access-date=2025-12-13 |work=Salisbury Post |pages=26}}</ref> (died 2010), an investment banker,<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Vitello |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Vitello |date=25 May 2014 |title=Betty Sherrill, 91, Decorator for New York's White-Shoed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/nyregion/betty-sherrill-decorator-to-the-white-shoed-and-wealthy-dies-at-91.html |access-date=2025-12-13 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> and they moved to New York City in 1949.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2014-05-14 |title=Iconic interior designer Betty Sherrill dies at age 91 |url=https://businessofhome.com/articles/iconic-interior-designer-betty-sherrill-dies-at-age-91 |access-date=2025-12-14 |website=Business of Home}}</ref>
After attending some classes at the Parsons School of Design,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Merrell |first=James |date=2014-04-30 |title=AD Remembers Decorating Legend Betty Sherrill |url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/betty-sherrill-mcmillen-inc |access-date=2025-12-14 |website=Architectural Digest |language=en-US}}</ref> Sherrill founded the independent firm Elizabeth Sherrill Interiors, gaining her experience by designing the residences of her socialite friends, such as Laurence and Mary French Rockefeller, among others. In an interview, she expressed desires to have become an architect but chose not to, given a lack of women in architecture. Her firm later closed, and in 1952, she was hired to McMillen's.<ref name=":1" /> Stylistically, she was known for her furniture arrangements and pastel palettes. Her quiet luxury style is typical of McMillen's.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hoffman |first=Marilyn |date=29 March 1981 |title=Decorating for Quality, Restraint, Taste |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1116958988/?match=1&terms=Betty%20Sherrill |access-date=2025-12-13 |work=The Grand Rapids Press |pages=36}}</ref> After Eleanor Brown's retirement as president in 1976, Sherrill, her husband, and some investors, purchased the company, after which she became president. She retired as president in 2002 and remained chairwoman.<ref name=":0" /> Curbed described her as "one of the most influential American designers of the last half-century".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goodman |first=Wendy |date=2014-05-16 |title=Remembering Betty Sherrill, Society Design Legend |url=https://www.curbed.com/2014/05/remembering-a-society-design-legend.html |access-date=2025-12-14 |website=Curbed |language=en}}</ref> She was an inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 1989, then received the Second Parsons Centurion Award for Design Excellence in 2006 and The Decorator's Club Inc. Medal of Honor in 2008.<ref name=":1" />
From 1972 to 1999, Sherrill was president of One Sutton Place South. She died on May 12, 2014, aged 91, in Manhattan, from pancreatic cancer.<ref name=":0" /> Her daughter, Ann Pyne, succeeded her as president of McMillen's.<ref name=":2" />
== References == {{Reflist}} Category:1923 births Category:2014 deaths Category:American women interior designers Category:Designers from Manhattan Category:Artists from New Orleans