Rose Blumkin

Rose Blumkin arrived in the US from Russia with no English and opened Nebraska Furniture Mart in an Omaha basement in 1937 with 500 dollars. Her rule was to sell cheap and tell the truth, and when rival dealers took her to court for undercutting fixed prices, she won. Warren Buffett bought most of the business on a handshake in 1983, and she kept working on the shop floor past her hundredth birthday.