News of the death of model and journalist Gail O’Neill, 60, is spreading through Instagram. Her passing has been confirmed by her agency.
O’Neill’s life in fashion took off at JFK Airport. In 1985, arriving home from vacation, this five-foot-nine beauty was approached by photographer Chuck Barry. At the time, O’Neill was a Wesleyan University graduate working in marketing and sales for Xerox and thriving in her career. She carried that success over to her new occupation. Just months after being signed by Click Models’ prescient founder Frances Gill, O’Neill landed the March 1986 cover of British Vogue and became part of what was being described at the time as a renaissance of Black models.
Born in New York’s Westchester County, O’Neill was the second of three children of Jamaican immigrants. “By the time I was 11 or 12 years old, I was convinced that my tall, skinny frame was some kind of cosmic joke…with me the punchline,” she said. She’d go on to make headlines, walking major runways and acting as the face of Avon, Esprit, and Diet Coke, among other clients, and appearing in 1992’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.