Billie Blair is an American

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

Early life

Blair was born in Arkansas to parents, Hattie and William Blair, and is of African-American descent. Her name was given to her due to her father's certainty that she was going to be a boy. His plan was to name his child William Junior, however, when Blair was born a girl, she was given the shortened version of that name, "Billie". They eventually moved to Flint, Michigan during the height of the auto industry there.

Career

Blair began her career as a model by working through local modeling agencies in Detroit, which largely booked models for the

Cobo Hall Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall, Cobo Center, and briefly as TCF Center) is a convention center in Downtown Detroit, owned by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) and operated by ASM Global. Located at 1 Wash ...

auto shows. Blair modeled at The Battle at Versailles Fashion Show in 1973. She credits her claim to fame in the 1970s to Marji Kunz, then fashion editor of the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

''. With Kunz's guidance, she flew to New York in 1973, a trip that was planned to last only three days, but instead turned into 20 years after Blair signed with the Ellen Harth agency and

Eileen Ford Eileen ( or ) is an Irish feminine given name anglicised from Eibhlín and may refer to: People Artists *Eileen Agar (1899–1991), British Surrealist painter and photographer * Eileen Fisher (born 1950), clothing retailer and designer *Eileen ...

of the

Ford Models Ford Models, originally the Ford Modeling Agency, is an American international modeling agency based in New York City. It was established in 1946 by Eileen Ford and her husband Gerard W. Ford. Company Ford Models was started in 1946 by Eileen ...

agency When landing in New York, Blair had shaved her head completely bald for a jewelry modeling job where she had to resemble an Egyptian. During her heyday, Blair earned $400 a day and received offers from magazines like ''Ebony'' and ''Mademoiselle''. Blair is currently a minister residing in

Defiance, Ohio Defiance is a city in and the county seat of Defiance County, Ohio, United States, about southwest of Toledo and northeast of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in Ohio's northwestern corner. The population was 16,494 at the 2010 census. History The cit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Billie African-American female models American female models African-American models Female models from Ohio American clergy Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Defiance, Ohio 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women