Like their billionaire sister, Martha StewartThe five siblings of George Christiansen, Kathryn Evans, Laura Plimpton, Eric Scott and Frank Koystra learned from their parents to be self-reliant.

The six siblings were raised in Nutley, New Jersey, by Martha and Edward Kostrya, Polish immigrants who ran a local tavern. Edward’s parents were particularly hardworking, requiring his children to paint their own rooms, make their own clothes, and earn extra money by trapping and skinning muskrats to sell their pelts.

“Father instilled in all of us a sense that we could go further than the average person,” his sister Kathryn told PEOPLE in 1995. Martha, the second eldest of the Kostrya children, embodied that lesson and launched a brand with a so successful that it would eventually become synonymous with household chores. The rise and fall of her career as America’s first female influencer even forms the basis of Netflix’s new documentary. Marthawhich began broadcasting on October 30.

But his brother, Eric, told PEOPLE that their father’s expectations that his children go above and beyond the ordinary weren’t always a good thing and that being “demanding” and “supercritical” was a curse family.

“He would give us an order, and if we didn’t follow it, we paid the penalty,” Eric said of their father in Martha. Despite this, Martha remembers her childhood fondly and considers her upbringing to be the source of her legendary work ethic.

“I was one of a family of six kids and two working parents,” she said during a 2020 appearance on Shop the stars with Jill Martin. “And they didn’t make a lot of money… We were taught to work, we were encouraged to pay our own way, and we all did.”

So, who are Martha Stewart’s siblings? Here’s everything you need to know about his brothers George, Eric and Frank and his sisters Kathryn and Laura.

Laura and George worked for Martha

Throughout her decades-long career, Martha employed a few of her siblings. George and his wife, Rita Christiansen, ran the brand’s Westport, Conn., office for a time, and Laura worked for her older sister for more than 25 years.

Martha’s youngest sister, Laura, was a writer, editor, and researcher for Martha Stewart’s blog Living Omnimedia and The Daily Wag.

George had an ‘affinity’ for making pies

Martha isn’t the only one in her family who can make a mediocre dessert. By TodayGeorge made an appearance on one of his sister’s shows to help her make blueberry pie. In true Koystra fashion, the pie was made with blueberries grown in his personal garden.

George, a father of two who worked as a contractor and helped renovate one of Martha’s former homes, died suddenly on March 13, 2017. He was 65 years old.

On the anniversary of his death in 2023, Martha shared a photo of his “little brother” at his daughter’s wedding. In the caption, she wrote: “We miss him. »

Eric carves wooden ducks

In 2023, Martha showed off her older brother’s DIY skills and shared two photos wooden ruddy duck decoys that Eric had carved for her.

“Eric is a retired dentist and in his spare time he carves, carves, makes Tiffany lampshades, builds 18th century American furniture and a myriad of other things,” she wrote in legend. “He can also fix just about anything!!! These magnificent carved wooden decoys illustrate his sense of precision and skill as a carver.

Martha alluded to her brother’s handiness in a 2023 interview for Life stories. She said that although she was more of a “homebody” type who babysat and did whatever her parents asked, Eric was more independent. He was an outdoorsman and the first of his siblings to attend college.

Laura’s older siblings named her

Born on March 4, 1955, Laura was the baby of the family – and her mother (Big Martha, as she was often called) wanted to name her Dorothy. But Martha wrote on his blog In 2014, for some reason the siblings didn’t like the name and persuaded their mother to call her Laura instead.

“We still don’t know why we don’t like the name Dorothy,” Martha wrote. “But Laura was loved by everyone as Laura.”

During her Life Stories interview, the famous entrepreneur said that Laura married an actor named Kim and had two children. He died when the children “were very young” and Martha introduced her to her second husband, Randy Plimpton. They also had a child together.

Laura died of a brain aneurysm in 2014

On August 6, 2014, Martha announced on her blog that Laura had died of a massive brain aneurysm. Earlier this week, she “suddenly felt ill” after taking a shower at her home in Connecticut. She was rushed to hospital and kept on life support for two days so her children could say their goodbyes. Laura was 59 years old.

“Laura was celebrated for her curious and loving spirit, as well as her warmth, sensitivity and sense of humor,” her obituary in Suffolk Times read. “She was a superb cook, a master seamstress and a wonderful mother. She made lots of clothes for her children and always sent them to school with a homemade lunch.

Frank and Martha had been separated for five years

Martha didn’t always get along with her siblings. His younger brother, Frank, said WAFF48 in 2004, they hadn’t spoken for five years. The siblings got together when she was accused of insider trading in 2004.

“I could see the horrible agony and sorrow in his eyes and on his face – I had to stop myself from crying,” Frank told the New York Post in 2004. “I wanted to hug her at the courthouse – and just tell her how much I love her – but it wasn’t appropriate.”

Martha was later convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of juice and sentenced to five months in prison.

Martha said she was her father’s ‘favorite child’

Although Edward passed on his farming skills to all of his children, Martha said he devoted more time to her. She told Life Stories that he taught her “everything” about perfectionism and how to do “the best job possible.”

“When I needed him to take me somewhere, Dad was available,” she said. “I was his favorite child. It’s strange to say, but I was definitely his favorite child.

Edward died before Martha was 30 years old. “It was a big loss for me because he hadn’t yet seen what I was going to do,” she said. “I felt a little bad that he didn’t make part of my dream come true, and I know he would have really appreciated it.”

Martha reiterated this statement in Martha, saying, “I was the ideal girl I wanted to learn. …He thought I was more like him than the other kids.

Martha’s siblings opened up about their childhood Martha

Eric, Frank and Kathryn were interviewed for the Netflix show Marthaalthough they did not appear on camera. Eric and Frank talked about their father’s difficult parenting, especially when it came to gardening. Eric said the family had gardens because Edward couldn’t support his six children on his salesman’s salary. Siblings traded food for goods, and if the harvest did not live up to their father’s standards, they were punished.

“We’ve had our lashings,” Frank claimed in the document. “We feared the stallion and sometimes it was the end of the belt.”

Eric said that to this day he still despises gardening.

Later, Kathryn opened up about her sister’s start as a model. “Everyone stopped everything to check on Martha,” she remembers.