Naomi Sims
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Naomi Ruth Sims (March 30, 1948 - August 1, 2009) was an African American model, businesswoman and author.
Biography
Sims was born in Oxford, Mississippi, the youngest of three daughters born to John and Elizabeth Sims. Her father was reportedly a porter. Her parents divorced shortly after she was born. Sims moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she attended Westinghouse High School. Due to her height, she was ostracized by many of her classmates. Sims credited her upbringing as a Catholic for helping to get her through adolescence.Template:Citation needed
Sims began college at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She became one of the first successful black models while still in her teens, and achieved worldwide recognition from the late 1960s into the early 1970s, appearing on the covers of prestigious fashion and popular magazines. The New York Times wrote that "appearance as the first black model on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal in November 1968 was a consummate moment of the Black is Beautiful movement".
By 1972, Hollywood took an interest in her as a potential actress and offered her the title role in the movie Cleopatra Jones, but when Sims read the script, she was appalled by the racist portrayal of blacks in the movie and turned it down. Sims ultimately decided to go into the beauty business for herself. In 1973, she retired from modeling to start her own business which created a successful wig collection fashioned after the texture of relaxed black hair.
She authored several books on modeling, health, and beauty, including All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman, How to Be a Top Model and All About Success for the Black Woman, as well as an advice column for teenage girls in Right On! magazine.
Death
She died of breast cancer on August 1, 2009, aged 61, in Newark, New Jersey. Her 1973 marriage to Michael Findlay ended in divorce in 1991. She is survived by her son, Bob Findlay, a granddaughter, and her elder sister, Betty Sims. Her eldest sister, Doris, died in 2008.
