By D. Kevin McNeir
GBMNews Sr. Correspondent

Grace, elegance and a keen sense of responsibility to her people are words that many use when describing Eunice Johnson, the widow of Ebony magazine founder John H. Johnson, who died at her Chicago home on Sunday from renal failure.

Johnson, 93, who gave the magazine its name, ran the business beside her husband since Johnson Publishing was founded in 1942 and despite her age was the company's secretary-treasurer at the time of her death. She also penned fashion features on a monthly basis for many years in Ebony.

Johnson's husband, John, began to publish Ebony, which would become the company's bread and butter, as an African-American alternative to Life and with its more pop culture-oriented Jet magazine, the magazines have collectively become two of the longest-running black-oriented magazines in the United States. But she was more than just her husband's helpmate and mother to their only daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, who now heads the publishing company. She was also a shrewd businesswoman whose flair and appreciation for fashion led her to organize a fashion show featuring African-Americans of all shapes, sizes and skin tones.

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