Helen Gurley Brown dies: 'Cosmopolitan' magazine editor was 90

Helen Gurley Brown, who was editor-in-chief of "Cosmopolitan" for 32 years, died today after a brief hospitalization, the Hearst Corporation announced today (Aug. 13). She was 90.

The iconic publishing trailblazer led the feminist movement with her revolutionary "Sex and the Single Girl," published in 1962 -- a year before Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique."

With "Single Girl" and, later, "Cosmo," Gurley Brown advocated what become the model for "Sex and the City": encouraging single women to focus on their careers and enjoy sexual relationships outside of marriage.

PICS: Notable deaths of 2012

Hearst Magazines president David Carey called Gurley Brown "an inspiration [and] a true success story," adding, that her "her energy, enthusiasm and true passion for women's issues unleashed a platform for women worldwide. She brought the subject that every woman wanted to know about but nobody talked about, to life, literally, in Cosmo's pages."

A memorial is scheduled for this fall, said Hearst CEO Frank Bennack.