Barbara Gardner Proctor

Career Early life and career Born in Black Mountain, North Carolina in 1932, Gardner was mainly raised by her grandmother. She attended high school in Asheville, NC and studied at Talladega College, Alabama graduating after three years with a degree in English and education and, a year later, in 1954, she gained a further degree in psychology and sociology.

Her earliest occupations were in teaching, counseling and social work. After forming a friendship with Sid McCoy, a Chicago-based disc jockey whose family owned a record store in the city, she was hired by VeeJay Records, with which McCoy was also connected, on his recommendation. She wrote publicity material for the company and liner notes for its album releases. She was the only African American woman working in such a position in the music industry at that time. In the early part of her career (as Barbara J. Gardner), she was a freelance jazz critic writing for DownBeat magazine; she later joined the staff and became a contributing editor.

Meanwhile, around 1960, Gardner became director of VeeJay Records' International Division. VeeJay was responsible for releasing The Beatles earliest records in the United States, via a deal in early 1963 which Gardner made with EMI executives in London.

Career in advertising In 1964, she was hired by the Post-Keyes-Gardner Agency, where she began using her married name Proctor so as to not share a name with one of the agency partners. She won 21 awards in three years at that agency. In 1976, she was elected as the first African-American women to head the Cosmopolitan Chamber of Commerce. She received the 1980 Headliner Award from the Association for Women in Communications. From 1983 to 1984, she was the cochair of the Gannon-Proctor Commission, which was appointed by the governor of Illinois to study the economy of Illinois. She was cited by President Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address, and was included in his 1986 special report "Risk to Riches: Women and Entrepreneurship in America." The Smithsonian Institution also featured her in its "Black Women Achievement against the Odds Hall of Fame.

Gardner Proctor died in a Chicago rehabilitation center on December 19, 2018, shortly after a fall caused a broken hip. She had suffered from dementia for some years.