dfl-001
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From Wikipedia:
From DEADLINE via Yahoo:Gail O'Neill (February 6, 1962 – October 10, 2023) was an American fashion model, who became a television journalist. As a fashion model, she was considered one of the elite black models in the world. She was on covers of leading fashion magazines and a part of the highly publicized Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. As a journalist, she was a correspondent for a variety of U.S. networks. She was an original correspondent for The Early Show on CBS and also worked for CNN and HGTV.
A native of Westchester County, New York, O'Neill worked for Xerox after graduation as a marketing representative.
Gail O’Neill, a top fashion model who became one of the original correspondent on CBS’ The Early Show, died Oct. 10.
She was believed to be 61. No cause of the death has been released.
The daughter of Jamaican immigrants, O’Neill was born in Westchester, New York.
She was working a marketing job for Xerox when she was discovered and embarked on a modeling career in the mid-1980s.
O’Neill appeared on the covers of magazines such as Vogue, Mademoiselle and Essence,
she was featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue,
starred in ads for such companies as Avon, Revlon and Coca-Cola and modeled for such designers as
Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Perry Ellis, Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors.
Along with Naomi Campbell, O’Neill was an early member of the Black Girls Coalition,
an advocacy group for black models founded by Iman and Bethann Hardison.
Throughout her career, she also refused to appear in ads for cigarettes or for companies that had South African investments during the apartheid era.
O’Neill eventually branched into television.
She was one of the founding correspondents on CBS’ The Early Show when it launched in 1999 and also hosted Travel Now for
CNN as well as Mission Organization and Public Places, Private Spaces for HGTV.
Over the past two decades, O’Neill worked for ArtsATL in Atlanta where she lived.
! I was recently looking at some of her work, including some of the Meisel edits she was in. Definitely an underrated but pioneering figure for future generations of black models. Don't recall her getting her much deserved shout out in the Supreme Models documentary either sadly!
