Sea legs

The national conversation about women leaders in corporate America, recently rekindled through a book written by Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, could learn something from Irene Seaman.

Seaman, after all, worked two jobs for more than four decades: By day she ran the books at her family's business, Seaman Corp., and by morning, evening and night she raised five children in her CEO-of-the-household role.

Today Seaman Corp., co-founded by Irene Seaman and her husband, Norman Seaman, in 1949, in their basement with two sewing machines, is a $100 million coated-fabrics business. The firm, now run by one of the couple's five children, Richard Seaman, manufactures fabrics and coating formulas used everywhere from roofs to truck tarps. It's based in Wooster, Ohio, and has another facility in Tennessee.