Aromatique founder Patti Upton dies at Arkansas home at 79

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Patti Upton, founder of home fragrance company Aromatique, has died in Arkansas at age 79.

Family Funeral Services in Heber Springs says Upton died Tuesday at her home in the lakeside city about 50 miles north of Little Rock. The cause of death hasn't been released.

Upton told The Associated Press in 2000 that her company started after she agreed in 1982 to help make a friend's local shop "smell like Christmas." Customers soon began asking to buy her homemade creation of leaves, pine cones, spices and oils, so she started mixing batches in garbage bags.

It blossomed into an international business manufacturing fragrances, candles and other decorative products. The products are also sold at major retailers like Dillards.

She was inducted last year into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame.

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