After gaining fame in the late ’80s and ’90s, she ventured into broadcast television working for CBS, CNN and HGTV.
Gail O’Neill, who helped to improve diversity on runways, in campaigns and in advertising in the ’80s and ’90s before building a second career in broadcast journalism, died on Tuesday.
Born and raised in leafy Westchester County, N.Y., O’Neill attended Wesleyan University. Her first post-college job in marketing for Xerox unexpectedly turned out to be the gateway to high fashion. Flying for business, the photographer Chuck Baker and his stylist wife Martha spotted her on the airplane and asked for her phone number.
She rose to fame in an era when white models dominated the field. O’Neill was an early supporter of the Black Girls Coalition, the advocacy and support group that was founded by Bethann Hardison in 1988 for Black models, and remains active today. O’Neill was known for always helping and advocating for other people, often behind the scenes, Grill said.Fun, smart, selfless and family-oriented, O’Neill was not blinded by the glamour of modeling.
Making the point that she was “no exception” to that ideology, O’Neill said that at the age of 11 or 12 she considered her tall, skinny frame to be “some kind of cosmic joke” with her being “the punchline.” She continued, “But show me a child who looks like that today, and I see how beautiful they are — like a little gazelle or a baby giraffe.”
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