Naomi Sims

Naomi Ruth Sims (March 30, 1948 – August 1, 2009)[2] was an American model, businesswoman and author.

Sims was the first African-American model to appear on the covers of Ladies' Home Journal and Life.

Her father (whom she never knew) reportedly worked as a porter, but Sims' mother later described him "an absolute bum" and her parents divorced shortly after she was born.

Elizabeth Sims later moved with her three daughters to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Naomi's mother was forced to put her child into foster care.

The key breakthrough came when she was selected for a national television campaign for AT&T, wearing clothes by designer Bill Blass.

She also frequently collaborated with photographers Anthony Barboza, Richard Avedon, Francesco Scavullo, Irving Penn, and William Helburn and Berry Berenson.

Sims retired from modeling in 1973 to start her own business, which created a successful wig collection fashioned after the texture of straightened black hair.

Findlay and Sims were both profiled separately in the February 1, 1970, issue of Vogue before they met and married.