Born in Manhattan, Crow was the oldest child in a family of six children.
In the fall of that year she entered Brown University to pursue a master's degree, but left just a few weeks into the semester to join the editorial staff at New York magazine where she worked for the next decade.
In 1988 she became the CEO of the American branch of Gruner + Jahr which at that time was publishing seven different magazines, including Parents.
Crow overhauled the content and appearance of all of these magazines, and successfully raised the revenue of all seven by more than 50 percent over the next five years.
[4] Crow died on April 4, 2005, of esophageal cancer, according to her son, Samuel.