Stewart was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Marie and Clarence Cullen Bryant. She and her three sisters lived in an orphanage after her parents divorced, where her youngest sister died of a mastoid infection at age 2. After her mother remarried they returned to live with her. She attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs. After graduating, at the age of 17, she married scientist Jack Davison Young and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1941. She worked in a naval yard before taking up modelling.
Career
Young became one of Washington's top models and created her own agency in partnership with two other women. When she met the humor columnist Art Buchwald, he suggested a co-partnership with his wife in writing a book about etiquette. Stewart collaborated with Ann Buchwald on two other joint books and then she started writing her own. She went on to teach etiquette and manners to children, including Richard M. Nixon's daughters, and Dwight D. Eisenhower's granddaughter and President Johnson's son. Her husband started a business to teach etiquette training and Stewart began teaching classes for professionals and college students. She went to class equipped with a complete place setting that included china, 10 pieces of silverware, five different sizes of crystal glasses, and "a silver salt cellar with accompanying shell-shaped spoon". She moved to Kewanee, Illinois in 1965 after her divorce from Mr. Young and remarriage to attorney William E. Stewart. She created a network of etiquette classes, which at its height had locations in several hundred U.S. cities. These classes were called White Gloves and Blue Blazers ; they usually ran in cooperation with department stores. She wrote fifteen books on etiquette including, Marjabelle Stewart's Book of Modern Table Manners, Can My Bridesmaids Wear Black? And 325 Other Most Asked Questions, and Executive Etiquette in the New Workplace. In 1977, she began issuing an annual list of best-mannered cities. Cities like Savannah, Georgia, Madison, Wisconsin, and New York often appeared in the list. Stewart died of pneumonia at a Kewanee, Illinois nursing home, at the age of 82.
Published Works
The Complete Wedding Planner: 2nd Revised Edition, The Essential Guide to Planning Every Phase of Your Wedding. Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 2nd Rev edition,
Commonsense Etiquette: A Guide to Gracious, Simple Manners for the Twenty-First Century. Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition,
The New Etiquette: Real Manners for Real People in Real Situations--An A-to-Z Guide. Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin,
Executive Etiquette: In the New Workplace. Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; St Martin's Griffin ed edition,
Little Ways To Say I Love You: Dozens of Simple Ways To Show Spouses, Lovers, Children, and Friends How Special They Are. St. Martin's Griffin,
Can My Bridesmaids Wear Black?-- And 325 Other Most-Asked Etiquette Questions. Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1 edition,
What to Do When and Why: At School, at Parties, at Home, in Your Growing World. Publisher: Robert B Luce,
Executive Etiquette: How to Make Your Way to the Top With Grace and Style by Marjabelle Young Stewart . Publisher: St Martins Pr, ASIN: B01K3K2UUY
The Teen Girl's Beauty Guide to Total Color Success. Publisher: Signet Vista Books,.
