Dale Carnegie

In 1927, Carnegie got married to Lolita Baucaire but the marriage proved to be unsuccessful and they were divorced in 1937. The couple had a daughter, Rosemary.

On November 5, 1944, he remarried; this time to Dorothy Price Vanderpool; he had first met Dorothy three years earlier at Oklahoma School of Business, the first of the many business schools that offered his courses. In 1951, a daughter, Donna, was born to them; Dale was 63 years old then.

Dale Carnegie died on November 1, 1955; initially, there were a variety of reasons attributed, however, a ‘Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.’ official statement gave the reason as being Hodgkin's lymphoma. He is buried in the family plot in Belton cemetery, Cass County, Missouri.

Dale Carnagey was born on November 24, 1888, to John William Carnagey and Amanda Elizabeth Carnagey. He was his parents’ second son.

The family was very poor and young Dale had to help out by getting up at four in the morning to milk the family cows before going to school. He attended Rose Hill and then Harmony, both one-room schools.

He, along with his family, moved to a farm in Warrensburg in 1904. In the couple of years that he spent in high school there, he realized that he was not athletically gifted but was above-average in public speaking.

He became a member of the school debating team though initially, he was not the success he aspired to be. Due to his shabby appearance and ill-fitting clothes, he was shunned by his classmates. The friends he made was because of his way with words.

After passing out from high school, he enrolled at the State Teacher's College in Warrensburg. However, in the two years before he graduated in 1908, he continued to stay at home as he was unable to afford room and board that cost $1 per day.

Recalling his popularity with fellow students for tips on public speaking and realizing that it was his way with words that made him a successful salesman, in 1912, Dale Carnagey persuaded the manager of the ‘YMCA’ hostel to allow him to teach public speaking there.

His classes proved to be an immediate hit. Concentrating on the daily needs of people in business, Carnagey taught the participants the tenets of successful interviewing, making compelling presentations, and establishing fruitful relationships.

In 1913, he published ‘Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business’, the first of his many best-selling books.

His unique approach to public speaking capitalized on the desire of the average American for more self-confidence and made his classes so popular that Carnegie moved out of the ‘YMCA’ in 1914 to establish his own ‘Dale Carnegie Institute’ to accommodate the steadily rising number of students. His monthly income at this time was a handsome $500, the same as a factory-fresh Ford Model T.

With his stars on the ascendancy, Dale, in 1916, even rented New York’s iconic ‘Carnegie Hall’ for his lectures that had become wildly popular by that time.

‘Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business’, the book that set him on his path of success.

‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, a runaway success that made Carnegie famous internationally.