Early Life and the Founding of the Neiman Marcus Store

Carrie Marcus was born to German Jewish immigrants in Lousiville, Kentucky in 1883. The Marcus family moved to Hillsboro, TX in 1895.  Soon Carrie followed her older siblings to Dallas and became a saleswoman at a department store.  Carrie met Al Neiman in Dallas; they married in 1905.

Along with her husband and brother Herbert, Carrie Marcus Neiman was one of three founders of the Neiman Marcus store that opened in Dallas, 1907. Dallas was an unlikely place for such plans for a store selling high-end ready-to-wear clothes. It was a sleepy, unsophisticated town of about 84,000 people. In addition, ready-to-wear was hardly a business at the time. Women of means had their clothes custom made in New York or Paris.