East of Albion: beautiful people

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Donyale Luna.

Donyale Luna (1 January 1945 - 17 May 1979) was the first notable African American model and the first black cover girl.She also appeared in several films, most notably as the title character in Salome, a 1972 film by director Carmelo Bene, and several films by Andy Warhol.

She was born Peggy Anne Freeman in Detroit, Michigan.Her parents were Peggy and Nathaniel Freeman; her father, who was reportedly abusive, was murdered when she was 18. Luna's mother wanted her to become a nurse.

Despite the parentage stated on her birth certificate, she insisted that her biological father was a man with the surname Luna and that her mother was Mexican. According to the model, one of her grandmothers was reportedly an Irish former actress who married a black interior decorator. Whether any of this background is true is uncertain. In the mid 1960s, a relative described Luna as being "a very weird child, even from birth, living in a wonderland, a dream."

Luna died in Rome, Italy, in a clinic, after an accidental drug overdose.