Weve got to write our history in a positive way that documents the great works of those before us who contributed to our positive image. -- Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell (1922-2014), fashion model, publisher and founder of the Grace Del Marco Modeling Agency and The Ophelia DeVore School of Self-Development and Modeling Ophelia DeVore redefined Black beauty as the founder of the Grace Del Marco Modeling Agency in the 1940s — an age when modeling schools, and modeling jobs, were overwhelmingly closed to blacks. As an agent, Mrs. DeVore-Mitchell represented members of the first wave of black models to attain wide visibility at midcentury, among them Helen Williams, often described as the first black supermodel. She also represented a young model named Richard Roundtree before he went on to fame as an actor in “Shaft” and other movies. As a charm-school director, Mrs. DeVore-Mitchell taught dress, diction and deportment to thousands of students, including the future actress Diahann Carroll, the future television newswomen Sue Simmons and Melba Tolliver, and a young Faith Evans. Pictured: Ophelia DeVore and Cicely Tyson (1960s) Learn more about her lifes work at nytimes/2014/03/13/nyregion/ophelia-devore-mitchell-91-dies-redefined-beauty.html? and _r=0opheliadevore/.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 13:40:49 +0000
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