Martha Stewart
back at work

updated 5:47 p.m. ET March 7, 2005

NEW YORK - A beaming Martha Stewart returned to work on Monday, blowing a kiss and waving as she arrived to speak to cheering employees.

After five months in prison and a weekend spent more comfortably at her 153-acre suburban estate, Stewart spoke to staff at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. in Manhattan, as members of the media looked on.

“All of you are my heroes,” Stewart told the crowd.

With barely a pause since she was released from a federal women’s prison in Alderson, W.Va., on Friday, Stewart addressed a staff diminished by layoffs in her absence. Although her company’s stock has recovered from its low following her conviction, its price has fallen roughly 19 percent since her release early Friday — wiping away more than $300 million in the company’s market capitalization.

“It’s really wonderful to be back. I’ve missed you, as you can imagine. I’ve thought about you every single day,” Stewart said. The several hundred employees gave Stewart a standing ovation and applauded several other times as she spoke.

Stewart, 63, said she had had “the tremendous privilege” of meeting a cross-section of people in prison and “learned a great deal about our country.”

Dressed in a fashionable black suit, Stewart held up the gray and white poncho she wore when she left prison on Friday. She said it did not come from a fancy store — but was crocheted by a fellow inmate.

“The night before I left she handed me this ... and said, ‘Wear it in good health,”’ Stewart said. “I hope she is reading the news and looking at television because I’m so proud of her.”

She also poked fun at her reputation as a perfectionist and promised to share credit with her employees in the future.

“I don’t always do all of my own ironing, even though I wish that I could. I love ironing,” she said. “What I want everybody to know is that I have been supported all of these years by all of you. ... I am extremely proud of each and every one of you.”

Investors, counting on a positive bounce from Stewart’s return, have bid up her company’s stock to triple the level it was when she was convicted on March 5, 2004, of lying about a stock sale.

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