NEW YORK — Dell Williams, founder of the first female-friendly adult store Eve’s Garden, died on Wednesday in her home in Manhattan.
The New York Times reports Williams was 92 and has no surviving immediate family members.
Nationally known as an advocate of women’s liberation, sexuality and sexual health, Williams was often consulted by news media on sex-related topics.
According to the New York Times, Williams founded Eve’s Garden at her kitchen table as a mail-order business and later operated as a brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan.
Williams was inspired to launch Eve’s Garden after attending a workshop from sex educator Betty Dodson in the early ‘80s. Dodson recommended the Hitachi Magic Wand, which Williams later purchased at a Macy’s where a “pimply 20-something” male sales clerk shamed her.
According to her memoir, “I left Macy’s that day clutching my precious, anonymous brown shopping bag and thinking: Someone really ought to open up a store where a woman can buy one of these things without some kid asking her what she’s going to do with it.”
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