Naomi Sims Death: 'First Black Cover Girl' Dies of Cancer at 61

Naomi Sims, considered the "first black supermodel" by some, died of cancer at age 61, Saturday, August 2, 2009, in Newark, New Jersey.

Sims was the first black model who appeared on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal in November 1968. She led a long and successful career as a model and then as a designer of collections of wigs and cosmetics aimed to be for black women.

Sims, according to The New York Times, was a symbol of the Black is Beautiful movement, carving out her path during years of the civil rights movement and of great cultural change in perceptions of black people in the United States.

According to Sims, it was her difficult childhood of foster homes, poverty, and racial divides that inspired her drive to become "somebody really important". Born to John and Elizabeth Sims in Oxford, Mississippi, on March 30, 1948, she was put in foster care after her parents divorced and Elizabeth became ill.

In addition to her pioneering career as a black model, Sims was known for her entrepreneurial spirit. She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, 1966, and took matters into her own hands after being turned down repeatedly by model agencies because "her skin was too dark".

Sims decided to deal with photographers directly, such as Gosta Peterson, who photographed and put the model on the cover of The Times's fashion supplement in August 1967, "Fashions of The Times". Then, Sims distributed the magazine for the agency of former model Wilhelmina Cooper, eventually leading to a weekly salary of $1,000 and a national television campaign with AT&T.

From that point, Naomi Sims was a much sought-after model, considered to be at the vanguard of a fashion movement for black models. She worked for designers such as Halston, Teal Traina, Fernando Sanchez, and Giorgio di Sant'Angelo, helping to open the way for later supermodels such as Pat Cleveland, Alva Chinn, and Beverly Johnson.

Sims' modelling career has been commemorated in an exhibit at the Metrolitan Museum of Art called "The Model as Muse", in which her 1967 Times fashion supplement photo and one other are displayed.

However, she did not rely totally on modelling for her livelihood, disliking the prevalence of sexism in the industry. Sims also did not plan on finding herself floundering when her career as a model inevitably came to an end.

Thus, Sims quit modelling after five years and, after realizing that most commercial wigs were meant for Caucasian consumers, began her own wig-design business in 1973. Her company earned annual revenues of $5 million within five years, and eventually became a multimillion-dollar beauty enterprise, including several books about beauty and modelling for black women.

Sims had two sisters, Betty and Doris Sims, and married Manhattan art dealer Michael Findlay in 1973, before divorcing in 1991. She is survived by Betty Sims and her two children, Bob and Betty Sims.