Eunice W. Johnson

Eunice Walker Johnson (April 4, 1916 – January 3, 2010) was an American businesswoman. Johnson was the wife of publisher John H. Johnson and an executive at Johnson Publishing Company. Johnson was the founder and director of the Ebony Fashion Fair, which began in 1958 as a hospital fundraiser and became an annual worldwide fashion tour that highlighted fashion for African-American women, running until a year before her death.

Early life and education Eunice Walker was born on April 4, 1916, in Selma, Alabama, to Nathaniel Walker, a physician, and Ethel Walker (née McAlpine), a high school principal. She was one of four children. She graduated with a degree in sociology from Talladega College in 1938. During college, Johnson joined Delta Sigma Theta. Johnson met her future husband, John H. Johnson, in 1940 while she was attending Loyola University Chicago and was married after she earned her master's degree the following year.

Career Johnson Publishing Company Together with her husband, she established The Negro Digest in 1942, a magazine styled after Reader's Digest. The rapid growth of their first publication encouraged them to create Ebony, a monthly designed to emulate Life and its style of boldly-photographed front covers. Johnson was the one who suggested that the magazine be named for the dark wood. She was survived by her daughter Linda Johnson-Rice, chairwoman and chief executive of Johnson Publishing, as well as by a granddaughter. Her son, John H. Johnson Jr., died in December 1981 after a long battle with an illness related to sickle cell at age 25.