Everyone knows who Martha Stewart is, but there was another woman whose mark is just as important to our culture — B. Smith. The former model-turned-restaurateur and lifestyle expert had her hand in just about everything, paving the way for women to become personal brands. She is often overlooked in these conversations, but I am here to change that.
Growing up in the 1980s, I remember my mother speaking of B. Smith as a true fan girl. B. Smith had her own line of clothing, household goods, and restaurants in New York City and Washington, D.C. To Black women like my mother, she was a symbol of what we could do as a collective, and she seemed unstoppable. Because my mother was a fan of B. Smith’s, I became a fan too, and often dreamed of eating in her restaurant one day.
Unfortunately, I never got the chance.
B. Smith’s career began similarly to Martha Stewart’s. While in high school, she created a homemaking club because she was refused membership in the “other” club due to her race. She became a model for Ebony Fashion Fair, being the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Madamoiselle magazine in 1976.
Television Host
Born Barbara Elaine Smith, B. Smith hosted her own syndicated television show called B. Smith with Style. Beginning in 1997, her program featured fashion and lifestyle tips, cooking demonstrations, and celebrity guests. It aired for eight seasons, even appearing on the Food Network lineup in the early 2000s.
Author
B. Smith wrote three books covering recipes and sharing entertaining ideas. B. Smith’s Entertaining and Cooking for Friends (1995), B. Smith’s Rituals and Celebrations (1999), and B. Smith Cooks Southern Style (2009) were bestsellers, and their contents are still relevant and useful.
Entrepreneur
She owned three restaurants called B. Smith, the first launched in 1986 in midtown Manhattan. The cuisine focused on American fare with Southern influences. She also opened a location in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and in 2013, added a location in the Beaux Arts Union Station area of Washington, D.C.
In addition to her restaurant imprints, B. Smith launched a home collection with La-Z-Boy as well as Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Naturalista
As a beautiful and stylish woman, B. Smith displayed her natural hair, one of the first women in the public eye to embrace her locks, showing that Black women with kinks and coils can be quite elegant as well as chic.
Her Legacy
In her later years, B. Smith announced that she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. She made the rounds doing interviews, sharing her experience with the disease. Her husband, Dan Gasby, went viral in the mid-2000s for publicly disclosing that he had a live-in lover who lived in the home with him and B. Smith.
This is how most remember her, but I do not want people to forget that she was an icon who was ahead of her time. Now, we see all types of women creating personal brands with their platforms, starting their own clothing lines, lifestyle imprints, and more.
Blueprint
While Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, Ree Drummond, and others garnered popularity en masse, B. Smith didn’t receive the same recognition. This is quite unfair, because she set the blueprint for others to follow. With her television show, restaurants, cookbooks, lifestyle lines, and more, she was the business.
In February 2020, B. Smith succumbed to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease at age 70, leaving behind her legacy of lifestyle talent and creativity for future generations.
Say her name–B. Smith! You can visit her official website HERE.
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