The rapid growth of their first publication encouraged them to create Ebony, a monthly designed to emulate Life and its style of boldly-photographed front covers.

In its half century of existence, the tour visited 200 cities across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, raising over $50 million for charity.

She was buried with her husband in a private family mausoleum at Oak Woods Cemetery, in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago's South Side.

[5] She was survived by her daughter Linda Johnson-Rice, chairwoman and chief executive of Johnson Publishing, as well as by a granddaughter.

Her son, John H. Johnson Jr., died in December 1981 after a long battle with an illness related to sickle cell at age 25.