The Face That Changed It All
Page 23
As I opened my mouth to say hello, I froze when she turned around. It was Iman!
Why was God playing a trick on me?
I managed a dry smile and a wave as I tried to gather my composure. I had stepped back into the apartment, shaking my head, when Anansa ran up to me with the phone in her hand saying, “Hey, Mommy, guess what?”
I gave her the side eye because I couldn’t get over who I had just seen across the hall. My plan was to go back to bed and hope a new day would start.
“What is it, Anansa?”
“Guess who is moving to Los Angeles, not too far from us?” I really didn’t want to guess, but Anansa was going to tell me anyway.
“It’s Daddy, Mommy! He’s moving to Los Angeles in the next few weeks.”
All I could think was that God sure has a sense of humor, doesn’t he? Taking a page from my mother, I gave my daughter the biggest smile I could muster, and then I picked up the phone and dialed my AA sponsor, Rita, and asked if there was a meeting I could attend.
Rita could tell by my voice that my world was crashing around me, but as she started to pepper me with questions, suddenly, and without warning, I just snapped out of it. My panic subsided, and the shock of what I had just seen and what I had just heard floated away. It hit me that everyone in this life has free will, so Iman could move into whatever building she wanted, and Danny could do what he pleased as well. The only thing l could do was control how I chose to react to their actions, and it couldn’t be a repeat of years gone by or I would end up in the same unhappy place. That wasn’t going to happen.
So I took a deep breath and finally answered Rita.
“My past was calling, but I refused to pick up. Rita, I’m really looking forward to seeing you at the AA meeting today.”
Epilogue
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
—Maya Angelou
For the love of Maya, Ruby, Shirley, Coretta, and all the other “Shero-Angels” who paved the way for my arrival! Thank you!
As I penned this book last year, the world lost two of its most significant cultural powerhouses: the great Maya Angelou and the legendary Ruby Dee. Those two women each single-handedly altered the creative landscape and changed how the world viewed women of color.
I will always treasure the private meetings I had with Ms. Maya over the years. What an amazing honor it was to spend time listening as she offered her words of wisdom to me with such love, sincerity, and clarity, one-on-one. Her books and poems have been such a wonderful refuge for me all my life, and I am so grateful that they now will live on for my daughter and my granddaughter, and for so many other daughters and granddaughters, to appreciate.
Ruby Dee’s spellbinding work in film and on Broadway, along with her beloved late husband Ossie Davis, like the writing of Maya Angelou transcends both time and space.
Then there are those phenomenal women who were not creative icons but political dynamos who changed the world bit by bit with the simple power of their unwavering convictions and beliefs. These towering women—such as Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Betty Shabazz, and Coretta Scott King—continue to inspire me long after their journey has ended on this earth. These women gave me hope that each one of my dreams was possible—and because of them, it turns out each one was.
Emmie Boykins, my maternal grandmother. We kids called her Mother Dear. She had an arranged marriage at thirteen years old.
My parents, Gloria and Tim Johnson, met and lived in Asbury Park, N.J., my dad’s birthplace.
My beautiful mother, Gloria Johnson’s, high school graduation picture.
The backyard of my Buffalo home. Me at four years old.
Brother Leon, me, and my younger sister Joanne having fun wrestling in our home.
Older sister Sheilah, older brother Leon, Dad, younger sister Joanne, Mom, and me at ten years old. My younger brother Darren wasn’t born yet.
I became a Junior Leader at the Humbolt YMCA in Buffalo at eleven years old. I am in the middle of the top row, best friend Dada is to my right, and my sister Joanne is below Dada.
My mom and dad; my big sister’s wedding picture is to the left and my wedding picture from my first marriage is to the right. (We wore the same dress.)
Eighteen years old and on my way in the modeling world, with my proud mom.
Me with Beverly Gamble, my college friend with whom I first stayed in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Me and my first husband Billy, December 27, 1972, on a plane to Barbados for Glamour magazine.
Taken by Patrick
Me and my best friend Dada, opening presents with her husband at their wedding.
Two-day-old Anansa and me in the hospital. The happiest day of my life.
Courtesy Johnson Publishing Company, LLC. All rights reserved
My beautiful angel, Anansa, at one week old.
A happy time at home in 1978, with husband Danny Sims, my mother, and baby Anansa, three days old.
Anansa swimming in the pool at my East Side home in Manhattan.
Taking Anansa to work with me in 1979.
Photographed by Anthony Barboza
Anansa with the haircut her father gave her.
Anansa and me in South Africa.
Anansa with a puppy, a gift for her twelfth birthday.
1980s AIDS awareness ad photographed by Gideon Lewin. Me, Janice Dickinson, Bitten Knudsen, Jane Hitchcock, and good friend Rosie Vela.
© Gideon Lewis. Gowns by Joanna Mastroianni
This is the cover! Photographer Francesco Scavullo; Way Bandy, makeup; Suga, hair stylist; Frances Stein, editor.
Cover (with cover lines) of the August 1974 issue of Vogue; Photo by Francesco Scavullo; Model Beverly Johnson in Kaspar for J.L. Sport sweater with a Ferragamo scarf. Credit: Scavullo/Vogue; © Conde Nast
One of my favorite Glamour magazine covers. This is how I saw myself.
Cover (with cover lines) of the July 1972 issue of Glamour; Photo by Susan Wood; Model Beverly Johnson. Credit: Wood/Glamour; © Conde Nast
I loved this cover because I could show my hair. I usually wore my hair pulled back for Glamour.
Cover (with cover lines) of the December 1976 issue of Glamour; Photo by John Stember; Model Beverly Johnson. Credit: Stember/Glamour; © Conde Nast
Glamour March cover.
March 1972 cover (with cover lines) of Glamour magazine; Photo by Mike Reinhardt; Model Beverly Johnson. Credit: Reinhardt/Glamour; © Conde Nast
Cover (with cover lines) of the April 1989 issue of Glamour; Photo by Patrick Demarchelier; Celebration of Models. Credit: Demarchelier/Glamour; © Conde Nast
Beautiful Iman arrives in America.
Photo by Peter Beard
Peter photographs me in Montauk.
Photo by Peter Beard
Johnny Casablancas Christmas card, 1980, featuring Peggy Dillard, Debbie Dickinson, Andie MacDowell, Sheilah Johnson, me, and Iman, among others. Johnny Casablancas was the founder of Elite Model Management in New York.
Janice Dickinson
Beverly in swimsuit.
Jet magazine
Arthur Ashe, me, Ahmad Rashad.
Jet magazine
Quintin Yearby, my closest friend, and me hanging out at a club.
In Scavullo’s studio with good friend and hair stylist Harry King and my personal assistant, Jimmy Hester, in the 1980s.
At a Nikki Haskell dinner party in 1990 with actor Chris Noth and Robin Byrd.
Me, my father, and my mother at Benny Medina’s home in L.A., 1988.
Dad, sister Sheilah, Mom, brother Leon, me, younger brother Darren, Anansa, nephew Jason, 1990.
Mike Tyson in my New York City apartment with a friend.
Me with Nikki Haskell, and my date, Benny Medina, at Richard Perry’s home on New Year’s Eve, 1988.
Deborah Gregory, creator of the Cheetah Girls, me, and fourteen-year-old Anansa at a restaurant.
Timeline
1952–1969
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York
1969–1970
Attends Northeastern University
1971
Leaves Northeastern and moves to Brooklyn, New York, to start first summer of modeling
1971
Returns to Northeastern University
1971–1972
Moves to New York City with sister Joanne
1972
Moves in with Billy Potter and his parents in Brooklyn, New York
1972
Marries Billy and moves to their first apartment in Brooklyn, New York
1973
Divorces Billy and moves into first apartment in Manhattan
1974
Historic American Vogue cover
1975
Historic French Elle cover
1976
Marries Danny Sims and moves to 1215 Fifth Avenue
1978
Anansa is born
1979
The film Ashanti and album Don’t Lose the Feeling are released
1981
Files for divorce from Danny and moves in with Johnny Baylor at apartment on Eighty-Ninth Street and Madison Avenue
1982
Loses custody of Anansa
1982
Johnny Baylor dies
1986–1988
Living bi-coastal between New York City and Los Angeles
1988
Moves to Los Angeles to start a new life
Acknowledgments
Tony Abner
Malaika Adero
Richard and Elizabeth Adler
Kim Alexis
Carol Alt
Dr. David Assomaning
Eugene Ball
Peter Beard
Harry Belafonte
Shari Belafonte
Fadil Berisha
Alberteen Bobo
Natasha Iwegbu-Bobo
Francesca Bowyer
Dr. Charles Boyd
Yvonne (Dada) Bratton and family
Christie Brinkley
Shaya Byrant and family
Debra and Jerry Carrington
Carol Channing
Nancy Chavez
Nick Chavez
Michael Childers
Jesse Collins
Condé Nast
Eileen Cope
Jeffrey B. Crevoiserat
Judith Curr
Clive Davis
Michael Deflorimonte
Patrick Demarchelier
Talani Diggs and family
Robert Dupont
Robert and Richard Dupont
Kelly Emberg
Terry Fleming
Jane Fonda
Eileen Ford
Leslie Frank
Maggie Fraser
Daisy Fuentes
Helene Galen
Dr. Anath Gerber
Bobby Gerber
Cary Gerkins
David Gernsbacher
Grandchildren Ava, David, Dean
Byrant Green
Deborah Gregory
Vijay Gupta
Alan Hamel and Suzanne Somers
Dionne Harmon
Rene Harper
Nikki Haskell
Peter Haviland
Bill Hawthorne
Greer Hendricks
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Herman and family
Mellody Hobson
Hollywood and Flame
Lynette and Bob Holmes
Ralph Hughes
Kathy Ireland
Dr. Gail Jackson
Mr. and Mrs. Darren Johnson and family
Dustin Johnson and son
My mother, Gloria Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. Leon Johnson and family
Sheila Johnson
My father, the late Tim Johnson
Lisa Taylor Jones
Quincy Jones
Elizabeth Kabler
Jamie Kabler
Steve and Cecelia Kamafugi
Bill Kapfer
Lana Kerr
Terry Kim
Gayle King
Harry King
Peter King
Stan Lathan
Drs. Andre and Sonia Lee
Annie Leibovitz
Gideon Lewin
Sandy Linter
Karmisa Little
Sylvia Long
Brian Maillian
Lauren Maillian and children
Ruby Maillian and family
Reginald Mason
Peter Max
Donna MacMillan
Terry McMillan
Ken Meares
Alicia Melkon and family
Bart Michaels
Grace Mirabella
Mr. and Mrs. Henri Mohammed and family
Dr. and Mrs. Sanjeev Nath
Ann Marie Neve
Si Newhouse
Bill Nicholson
Tanya Evans Norris and Terry Norris
Peter Nygard
Shawn Outler
Anansa Sims Patterson
David Patterson
Leesa Patterson and family
Mr. and Mrs. David Payne
Ron and Jill Perelman
Isabel Perez
Dr. Earl Petrus
Billy Potter
Ralph and Elizabeth Preciado
Gwendolyn Quinn
Joshua Ravetch
Patti Hansen Richards
Ms. Joanne Richardson and family
Barbara and Ian Robertson
Allison Samuels
Patty Sicular
Russell Simmons
Karin Silverstein
Barbara Sinatra
Audrey Smaltz
Walter and Karen Sousa
Eileen Stern
André Leon Talley
Cheryl Tiegs
Rita Vale
Rosie Vela
Judy Waddle
Robert Walker
Aaron Walton
Marc Ware
Oprah Winfrey
Mr. and Mrs. Jason Wright and family
Mr. Robert Wright and family
Mrs. Sheilah Wright
Mark Zunino
Beverly Johnson is an American model, actress, businesswoman, and author of two beauty books. She made history when she rose to fame as the first black model to appear on the cover of American Vogue in August 1974. She starred in the OWN reality show Beverly’s Full House in 2012, and was named one of the twentieth century’s most influential people in fashion by The New York Times.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
authors.simonandschuster.com/Beverly-Johnson
Facebook.com/AtriaBooks
@AtriaBooks
We hope you enjoyed reading this Atria Books eBook.
* * *
Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Atria Books and Simon & Schuster.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com
Index
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
A
Africa, 147
South Africa, 213–17
African National Congress (ANC), 216–17
AIDS, 86, 100, 116–17, 220
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), 218, 223–26
Ali, Muhammad, 199, 200
Alicia (friend), 218
Allure, 34
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, 88
Amazon River, 90, 91
American Ballet Theatre, 88, 99
America’s Next Top Model, 118, 204–5
Angelou, Maya, 70, 227
Army Rangers, 176
Arthur Ashe Stad
ium, 117
Ashanti, 137–38, 146–49, 151, 152, 153, 157, 158, 159–60
Ashe, Arthur, 108–17, 124
breakup with Beverly, 115–16, 118, 119
childhood of, 112
death of, 117
Ashe, Johnnie, 112
Ashe, Mattie, 112, 117
B
Bacall, Lauren, 5
Bailey, Pearl, 101
Baldwin, James, 16
Bandy, Way, 100
Banks, Tyra, 65–66, 70, 205
Baryshnikov, Mikhail, 99
Baylor, Johnny, 176–82, 186, 210
Anansa and, 179, 180
Danny Sims and, 176–81
death of, 184–85, 186