CHICAGO (AP) — Margaret Vinci Heldt, who became a hairstyling celebrity after she created the famous beehive hairdo in 1960, has died at age 98.

Ahlgrim Funeral Home in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst said Monday that Heldt died Friday at a senior living community.

The beehive – a tall, conical woman’s hairstyle – became a cultural phenomenon during the 1960s and evolved into a style worn for decades as Hollywood’s starlets walked red carpets.

Heldt created it on the request of a hairstyling magazine that published images of it in February 1960 and called it “the beehive” because it resembles the shape of a traditional hive.

“I have lived a charmed life,” Heldt said in a 2011 interview with the Associated Press. “The opportunities opened to me, and I said, ‘Now it’s up to me. I have to make it work.’”

Heldt said the inspiration for the hairstyle came from a little black velvet hat, shaped like a small bump and lined inside with red lace. Heldt went downstairs to her family room one night while her family was sleeping. She put on music and started working with hair atop a mannequin head.

The magazine article described the hairdo as a “tall wrap-around crown, creating a circular silhouette with high-rise accents.” Over the years, it was worn by cultural icons, including Amy Winehouse and Audrey Hepburn.