Ophelia DeVore

American businesswoman, publisher, and model (1922 2014)

Ophelia DeVore (August 12, 1921 – February 28, 2014) was an American businesswoman, publisher, and model. She was the first model of African American descent in the United States. In 1946, she helped establish the Grace Del Marco Agency, one of the first modeling agencies in America.

Emma Ophelia DeVore was born on August 12, 1922, in Edgefield, South Carolina. She was one of ten children born to John Walter DeVore and Mary Emma Strother giving Devore a mixed ancestry of German American, African American, and Cherokee. DeVore was the CEO and publisher of The Columbus Times newspaper in Columbus, Georgia, a Black newspaper which she ran from the 1970s until retiring in 2009. After her retirement, DeVore's daughter, Carol Carter Gertjegerdes became publisher, until her retirement in 2015. The current publisher of the newspaper is Ms DeVore's granddaughter.

Ophelia DeVore began modeling at the age of 16. As a fair skinned person of African American descent, DeVore could "pass" for Norwegian and gain contracts throughout Europe. In 1946, determined to create a new market for non White women in the U. S., DeVore established The Grace Del Marco Agency. In the agency's early days, it was a stepping stone for countless household names; Diahann Carroll, Helen Williams, Richard Roundtree, Cicely Tyson and others. Racism was rampant in New York's fashion business and the Grace Del Marco Agency was one of the few places non White models could gain work. Her agency's shows took place in churches, college campuses, and in the ballrooms of the Diplomat and Waldorf Astoria hotels. Like many non Whites in the mid twentieth century, DeVore's breakthrough came in Europe; specifically through the French fashion world. The initial impact took place at many of the Cannes Film Festivals during the 1950s and 1960s. DeVore also seized media for business equity by co hosting ABC's Spotlight on Harlem. Her intensity to "make it" demanded relentless dedication and work ethic; enough to cause her a heart attack while still in her twenties. In the agency's later years, it was renamed Ophelia DeVore Associates, and then the Ophelia DeVore Organization. In 1985, DeVore broadened her enterprise globally to include Swaziland as a client, and published her late husband's newspaper The Columbus Times.

DeVore always maintained a role as activist for non White inclusion in the fashion industry and creating universally inclusive concepts designed for excellence.