Parents the world over owe a debt of gratitude to Donovan, who died on Nov. 4 of heart disease at 81. A former editor at Vogue whose father helped invent a lathe used to make auto gears, Donovan was a stay-at-home Connecticut mom in 1946 when she got frustrated washing her firstborn Christine's sodden nappies. "The moment she put me down at night, I was wet," says Christine, 54, a marketing consultant.
Inspiration struck when Donovan glanced at her shower curtain. She used it to create a leakproof, reusable diaper cover, testing it on daughter Sharon, now 52 and a writer and editor, and son James, 48 and a surgeon. Critics thought she was all wet. But Donovan patented her invention, the Boater, and sold the rights for $1 million in 1951. Her cheeky idea paved the way for the disposable diaper, now a nearly $5 billion industry.
The indefatigable Donovan went on to invent several other products, including a foam hand brace for her ailing second husband, John Butler, who died last July. "They thought she was crazy," says Christine. "But she always saw another way."
VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE
Heartbreak & Hope
After Jaycee Dugard's rescue, a look at the cases of six young people who went missing in 2009
