Bernadette Castro

Bernadette Castro (born July 10, 1944, in Manhattan) is an American businesswoman and former New York politician who served in the Cabinet of former New York Governor George Pataki. She is a partner with her family in Castro Properties. In the early 1960s, she pursued a singing career with mild success. Castro recorded several singles, the 1964 "His Lips Get in the Way" among others. After earning her master's degree at the University of Florida, Bernadette worked in the advertising and promotions department of Castro Convertibles. While raising her four children, Bernadette worked in the business on a limited basis and later moved into her role as the company CEO when they were grown. In 2009 Bernadette bought back the Castro Convertibles furniture business with her family. Early life and education Bernadette became involved with the Castro Convertibles business at a very early age. As a 4-year-old child, Castro starred in the brand's iconic television commercials that ran over 40,000 times, earning her the distinction of being the most televised child in America. With these commercials, and subsequent parodies of the commercials on shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Jackie Gleason Show, and Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theatre, Bernadette catapulted her father Bernard's innovative convertible couch to national fame by illustrating how the convertibles were "So easy to open, even a child can do it!" At the age of twelve, Bernadette starred in the first live, color television commercial. Bernadette graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelors of Science in 1966 in Broadcast Journalism. She earned a master's degree in Education in Secondary School Administration in 1978 from the same institution and became the first woman ever to receive the university's College of Journalism Distinguished Alumnus and was later inducted into the College of Journalism's Hall of Fame. Castro holds honorary degrees from the following institutions: St. Joseph's College – Honorary Doctor of Law (1993); Dowling College – Honorary Doctor of Law (1996) and Daemon College – Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (2001).