Bernice Lavin, 81; helped found beauty products firm Alberto-Culver Co.

Bernice Lavin, 81, who co-founded the beauty products business Alberto-Culver Co. with her husband, died Monday at her home in Glencoe, Ill., after a long illness, company officials said.

In 1955, Lavin and her husband, Leonard, a salesman, purchased a Los Angeles beauty supply company, discontinuing most of its products to focus on the Alberto VO5 Conditioning Hairdressing line.

They transferred the business to Chicago and renamed it Alberto-Culver, combining the names of the previous owner, Blain Culver, with his chemist, a man named Alberto. With the help of a few employees, the company had sales of $100,000 in the first year.

Today, the publicly traded company is based in the Chicago suburb of Melrose Park and makes TRESemme, Alberto VO5 and Nexxus hair products, as well as the St. Ives skin care line.

Lavin was vice president, treasurer, a director and corporate secretary until she retired in 2003.

Her husband, whom she married in 1947, remains a director and chairman emeritus of the company.

Lavin also was an active philanthropist in her native Chicago, supporting the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where a child-care center bears her name.