Naomi Ruth Sims
(March 30, 1948 - August 1, 2009)
Naomi Ruth Sims was an African American model, businesswoman and author.
Sims, the first black supermodel, broke barriers when she made the cover of Ladies Home Journal in 1968 — becoming the first black model to do so on a mainstream women’s magazine.
It was a defining achievement for the “Black is Beautiful” movement at the time – and Sims went on to appear on the covers of Life, Cosmopolitan and Essence.
Sims was born in Oxford, Miss., in 1948. Her parents divorced soon after she was born and her mother moved Sims and her two sisters to Pittsburgh. She left Pittsburgh for New York at age 18 to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology and hit the pavement to jump-start her own modeling career. When she began approaching modeling agencies, she was turned down — with some telling her that her skin was too dark. Instead of giving up, she pushed forward and approached photographers directly.
The approach landed her the cover of the Times' August 1967 fashion supplement. She used that photo to market herself directly to advertising agencies. Before long, she was modeling for top designers.
Sims gave up modeling after five years and launched her own wig-making business geared toward black women. She eventually expanded the multimillion-dollar business to include beauty salons and cosmetics, and she wrote "All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman" and other books.
Today, two photographs of Sims hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Model as Muse” exhibition.
She died of breast cancer on August 1, 2009, aged 61, in Newark, New Jersey. She is survived by her son, Bob Findlay, a granddaughter, and her elder sister, Betty Sims.
RIP
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