Naomi Sims

Early life Sims was born in Oxford, Mississippi, the youngest of three daughters born to John and Elizabeth Sims. Her father (whom she never knew) reportedly worked as a porter, but Sims' mother later described him "an absolute bum" and her parents divorced shortly after she was born. She was teased for her height of 5'10 at the age of 13. Elizabeth Sims later moved with her three daughters to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Naomi's mother was forced to put her child into foster care.

Career Sims began college after winning a scholarship to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Within a year Sims was earning $1,000 a week. The key breakthrough came when she was selected for a national television campaign for AT&T, wearing clothes by designer Bill Blass. In 1968 Sims told Ladies' Home Journal,

It helped me more than anything else because it showed my face. After it was aired, people wanted to find out about me and use me. The New York Times wrote that (her) "appearance as the first black model on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal in November 1968 was a consummate moment of the Black is beautiful movement". She also appeared on the cover of the October 17, 1969, issue of Life magazine.

By 1972, Hollywood took an interest in Sims as a potential actress and offered her the title role in the movie Cleopatra Jones, but when Sims read the script, she was appalled by the racist portrayal of blacks in the movie and turned it down. Sims ultimately decided to go into the beauty business for herself. Sims retired from modeling in 1973 to start her own business, which created a successful wig collection fashioned after the texture of straightened black hair. It eventually expanded "into a multimillion-dollar beauty empire and at least five books on modeling and beauty". Findlay and Sims caused a stir as Findlay was white and interracial marriage in 1973 was still considered taboo. Findlay and Sims were both profiled separately in the February 1, 1970, issue of Vogue before they met and married. They had one son, Bob. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1991.

Naomi was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Death Sims died of breast cancer on August 1, 2009, aged 61, in Newark, New Jersey. Her funeral was held at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan. She was survived by her son, Bob Findlay, a grandson, and her elder sister, Betty Sims. Her eldest sister, Doris, died in 2008.