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Smith was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers in 2013, her website says.
Smith wrote three cookbooks, founded three successful restaurants andlaunched a nationally syndicated television show and a magazine. Her successfulhome products line was the first from a black woman to be sold at a nationwideretailer when it debuted in 2001 at Bed Bath & Beyond. In 1976, she becamethe second black model to be on the cover of Mademoiselle magazine, after JoliJones in 1969.
Some described Smith as a “black Martha Stewart,” a comparison shesaid she didn’t mind though she believed the two lifestyle mavens were quitedifferent.
“Martha Stewart has presented herself doing the things domestics andAfrican Americans have done for years,” she said in a 1997 interview withNew York magazine. “We were always expected to redo the chairs and useeverything in the garden. This is the legacy that I was left. Martha just gotthere first.”
In the same interview, Gasby said, “Martha is perfection and Barbara ispassion.”
Smith began suffering from memory problems years before her diagnosis. Sheonce froze for several seconds while being interviewed on the “TodayShow,” prompting a doctor’s visit that led to her diagnosis. A few monthslater, she wandered away and was missing in New York City for a day.
The couple co-authored a book, “Before I Forget: Love, Hope, Help, and Acceptance in Our Fight Against Alzheimer’s,” and have partnered with the Brain Health Registry.
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B Smith’s Husband Criticized For Relationship Amid Wifes Alzheimers Battle
“I had tears in my eyes,” she said. “But at the same time I also said, ‘I’m not going to give to it. I am going to fight.'”
Gasby opened up in the same interview about what it was like to get the devastating news.
“You dont believe ittheres total denial,” he said. “And then you go to a point of anger and then you go to a point of frustration. And then you go to a point where you curse God and you say, Why? She doesnt deserve this.'”
If anybody didnt deserve this it was this woman because she is the sweetest human being, bar none. And then, after you curse God, you apologize.”
Al Roker posted a with Smith and Gasby on Sunday and shared his heartbreak at hearing the news.
“Just so sad to hear about the passing of legendary fashion model, chef, restaurateur, lifestyle icon and magazine publisher, B Smith. 70 years old,” he wrote. “She and her husband, Dan Gasby were at the forefront of #alzheimers#research for people of color. Love to them and daughter, Dana.”
Former Model B Smith Reveals Diagnosis Of Alzheimer’s Disease
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Former model B. Smith operated restaurants in New York City and Washington, D.C. PR Newswirehide caption
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Former model B. Smith operated restaurants in New York City and Washington, D.C.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 5 million Americans have the memory-robbing disease and African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to develop the late-onset version of the illness.
Princess Yasmin Aga Kahn and actor David Hyde Pierce have been in the forefront of advocating for more funds and research that might lead to a cure. But there hasn’t been a black celebrity who has taken a similar role.
Now, former model, restaurateur and decorator B. Smith has announced she has Alzheimer’s. The news began to circulate early Friday morning, as a preview of Smith’s interview with CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jonathan LaPook was posted online. The full interview is scheduled to air on CBS News Sunday Morning on June 15.
In it, Smith , dressed in a bright fuchsia sweater but missing her signature scarlet lipstick, haltingly tells LaPook she has Alzheimer’s. When asked if she knows what receiving that diagnosis meant, Smith responds, “It meant something bad, something really bad for me.” She’s asked, on camera, if she knows the day or the month or the year, and she shakes her head, smiling wryly.
“How does that make you feel?” LaPook asks gently.
“Things like that make me very sad,” Smith admits, tearing up.
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Cookbook Author Was Diagnosed With Alzheimer’s In 2013
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Model and lifestyle guru B Smith has died at the age of 70, after a years-long battle with Alzheimers.
Smiths husband Dan Gasby announced her passing on Sunday in a message shared to social media.
It is with great sadness that my daughter Dana and I announce the passing of my wife, Barbara Elaine Smith, he wrote. B died peacefully Saturday 22 February 2020 at 10.50pm, of Early-Onset Alzheimers Disease in our home in Long Island, New York. She was 70.
Gasby also expressed his gratitude to everyone whod supported his late wife during her journey.
Thank you to all the friends and fans who supported B and our family during her journey, he wrote. Thank you to everyone for respecting our privacy during this agonising time.
Lifestyle Guru B Smith Has Died At 70 From Early
Five years after announcing that she had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers disease, lifestyle guru B. Smith has died. The restauranteur and cookbook authors husband, Dan Gasby, announced that the 70-year-old former model died at her Long Island, N.Y. home on Feb. 22 while receiving hospice care for the disease.
Gasbys announcement included an obituary hailing his wifes many accomplishments, from being the first black woman to cover Mademoiselle magazine during her time as a model, to hosting the popular syndicated lifestyle show B. Smith with Style, in which she espoused her signature design philosophy: Whatever you do, do it with style!
Between her string of B. Smith restaurants, TV show, cookbooks and numerous retail collaborations, Smiths post-modeling career saw her establish herself as a multitalented entertainment expert and diverse alternative to . Her Bed Bath & Beyond home collection launched in 2001, with major retailers including Macys, Home Depot, Kohls and Stein Mart also tapping her for product ranges.
In 2013, however, the Pennsylvania native was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers disease, a devastating blow she publicly revealed in June 2014. She and husband Gasby chronicled her health battle in the 2016 book Before I Forget: Love, Hope, Help, and Acceptance in Our Fight Against Alzheimers.
Related Video: B. Smith Talks About Alzheimers Diagnosis
Smith is survived by Gasby and her stepdaughter, Dana Gasby.
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B Smith Celebrated Restaurateur And Model Dies At Age 70
The celebrated restaurateur and model Barbara Elaine Smith, known professionally as B. Smith, died Saturday after struggling with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Dan Gasby, Smith’s husband that she died late Saturday at the couple’s home on Long Island, New York.
“Heaven is shining even brighter now that it is graced with B.’s dazzling and unforgettable smile,” Gasby wrote.
Smith, 70, began her career as a model in the 1960s and became the one of the first African American women on Mademoiselle’s cover, in July 1976. Smith expanded her modeling career by becoming a lifestyle guru, a restaurateur and a TV host.
She hosted a nationally syndicated talk show, “B. Smith With Style,” in the mid-1990s. She also ran restaurants in New York and Washington, D.C., and wrote books on cooking and entertaining.
Smith’s line of home goods was sold in Bed, Bath & Beyond, making it the first line by African American woman to be sold at a nationwide retailer, according to her website.
Celebrities and admirers mourned Smith’s death with tributes on Twitter, remembering the “Renaissance woman” for her work in breaking down barriers for black women in the country.
The elegance. The grace. The style. May God rest and bless her soul. #BSmith was one-of-a-kind. Thanks to for this fantastic video.
Tenikka Smith Hughes
She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2013, at age 64, after experiencing bouts of forgetfulness.
Dreaming Gardening Creating A Vision
Gasby says he and Smith decided to launch their book on Martin Luther King Jr. Day because, He was a hero of mine and he had a dream which we are still fulfilling, said Gasby.
When I commented that he and B. are great examples of Kings legacy of pursuing a dream, he said, I like to think of it more as a vision and a hope for future generations. Some day in the not too distant future, I would love to know little children are learning about Alzheimers disease something they know nothing about because it doesnt exist .
He believes that in the same way we think today about smallpox or polio diseases that devastated populations in the past but for which we found a cure we have the ability to end Alzheimers. But you cannot pray or talk this disease away, said Gasby. We must act its like voting or participating in civil rights you need to get out there and do something.
Smith is now in stage 5 of the 7 stages of the disease. Gasby told me it helps him to share his emotions the good, bad and ugly on . He said its like taking the top off a steaming, screaming kettle once the pressure is released, you feel better. The feedback he gets on social media is instant and encourages him that he and Smith are making a difference.
I look at it like having a garden where you need to pull some weeds out, fertilize the ground and the remaining plants grow even more strong and beautiful, explained Gasby.
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B Smith Model Turned Restaurateur And Lifestyle Guru Dies At 70
Often called the black Martha Stewart, Ms. Smith wrote books on cooking and entertaining, had a syndicated television show, and created a line of products.
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Barbara Smith, a fashion model who created a business empire by catering to the tastes of aspiring black professionals with her restaurants, television shows, bedding and furniture collections and books on entertaining, died on Saturday at her home on Long Island. She was 70.
The cause was early-onset Alzheimers disease, her family said. Ms. Smith had waged a long and public battle with the disease, which was diagnosed when she was in her 50s.
Ms. Smith was best known for her popular Manhattan restaurant, B. Smiths. Located at the edge of the theater district, it opened in 1986 and almost immediately attracted a following among affluent black New Yorkers, who welcomed it as a stylish gathering spot. Essence magazine, in 1995, described it as the place where the whos who of black Manhattan meet, greet and eat regularly.
Ms. Smith opened a successful offshoot in Union Station in Washington, D.C., in 1994 and four years later in Sag Harbor, N.Y., where she and her second husband and business partner, Dan Gasby, maintained a summer house.
Al Roker Shares Memories Of Trailblazer B Smith
While Smith was a successful model, restaurateur, businesswoman, author and television host, her final legacy was helping encourage more research on Alzheimer’s for people of color. In 2015, Smith recorded a public service announcement encouraging more minorities to sign up for the registry and participate in clinical trials.
Barbara Elaine Smith was born on August 24, 1949. The Pennsylvania native, who went by B. Smith throughout her career, was a trailblazer in the modeling world. She became the first African American woman to grace the cover of Mademoiselle in July 1976, and was featured on 15 magazine covers during her career as a fashion model.
Smith really did do it all. She was an accomplished chef, author and restaurateur, but fans got to know Smith even better as host of the nationally syndicated show “B. Smith With Style.”
Every episode was a new adventure, whether it was cooking “teen-friendly snacks” with her daughter, Dana, taking viewers behind the scenes to learn how jelly beans are made, or trying out a new red snapper recipe with Henry Winkler.
In 2001, Smith launched her first home decor collection at Bed Bath & Beyond. Smith’s line has since expanded to other retail partners, including Belk, Burlington, Home Depot, JCPenney, Kohls, Macys and Stein Mart.
Smith, who was a popular and much-loved guest on TODAY, talked to Al Roker in 2015 about her diagnosis and desire to help further Alzheimer’s research.
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Early Life And Education
Smith was born on August 24, 1949, in the Pittsburgh suburb of Everson, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Florence, was a maid and her father, William, a steelworker. Smith was raised in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and attended Southmoreland High School, being graduated in 1967. In high school, the Future Homemakers of America club, while supposedly integrated, refused to let Smith join because of her race she countered by starting her own homemaking club with herself as president.
Did Gasby Smith Have Alzheimers
Smith revealed her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimers disease in 2014, saying that in the years before she was diagnosed she noticed she was repeating herself and forgetting things. Gasby first revealed his romance with Lerner on the Facebook page he shares with Smith back in December, according to the Washington Post.
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Lifestyle Guru B Smith Has Alzheimers Her Husband Has A Girlfriend Her Fans Arent Having It
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. It was 10 a.m., and B. Smith was shuffling around her house in socks and leggings and a bright red sweatshirt emblazoned with Wilhelmina, the prestigious modeling house to which she once belonged.
She is still model-slim at 69, actually. Her face, now framed with a halo of tight gray curls, is just as it was 20 years ago, when B. Smith was on TV, on the cover of magazines and books, when she had restaurants, when everyone seemed to call her the black Martha Stewart, as if it werent enough to just be B. Smith.
Six years ago, she was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. The illness is particularly common among African Americans, and it struck B. Smith at her prime it ravaged her brain, jumbling her memories, turning her sentences into alphabet soup.
Not long after, B.s restaurants shuttered. Her appearances dried up. With Dan Gasby, her husband and business partner of more than two decades, she turned her efforts to speaking about Alzheimers and advocating for research. Then, she didnt do much talking at all.
But Dan turned to social media. He took over , sending near-daily missives to their 30,000 followers on the realities of caring for a spouse who was rapidly forgetting him the fear shed developed, her anger and frustration, his own.
Dan had never been the type to bite his tongue, never bothered with niceties.
At 64, he had a wife, and he had a girlfriend named Alex Lerner. He was happy and in love.
Mmm-hmm.
B Smith Was Diagnosed With Early
Leaving dishes in the sink, buying five cartons of milk when she only needed one, sleeping fitfully, blowing up at her husband and business partner of more than 20 years for no good reasonthese uncharacteristic actions landed B. Smith and her husband, Dan Gasby, in her doctor’s office in 2014 wondering what was happening.
After doing a physical exam, taking a medical history, and noting her symptoms, her doctor delivered a grim diagnosis: B.short for Barbarahad , a condition that affects nearly one in 10 Americans aged 65 or older. Although Smith was in the very early stages and had a “mild” form, the prognosis wasn’t good: The disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
But the elegant, immaculate Smithformer model, restaurateur, author, and TV hostwas only 62. Wasn’t she too young for this disease?
Altered Lives
Smith is one of 200,000 Americans under the age of 65 with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Early-onset disease “is so devastating because it’s unexpected,” says Mary E. Quiceno, MD, FAAN, associate professor of neurology and neurotherapeutics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “These patients often have careers and kids at home. They may be contributing to the household financially. It really can destroy the functional unit of a family.”
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BEFORE I FORGET: HARMONY BOOKS
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Constant Adjustments
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Smith, who first made a name for herself as a model in the 1970s, eventually becoming one of the most recognisable black cover models, later became a well-known restaurateur, lifestyle maven and TV host.
She was first diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2013, before closing her New York restaurants the following year.
Following the news of Smiths death, fans and fellow celebrities have expressed their condolences over her passing.
We lost legendary fashion model, chef, restaurateur, lifestyle icon and magazine publisher, B Smith today, Al Roker wrote on Twitter. 70 years old, she and her husband, Dan Gasby were at the forefront of #alzheimers #research for people of colour. Love to them and daughter, Dana.
Dr Oz wrote: RIP B Smith. My thoughts & prayers are with her family. B was special to many people – Im honoured to have spent time with her. Bs fight with Alzheimers was one far too many face, but she approached it with a spirit that made her light shine bright.
Lifestyle Icon B Smith Dies At 70 After Early Onset Alzheimer’s
Barbara “B.” Smith, the groundbreaking lifestyle guru, fashion model and restaurateur has died at the age of 70, according to her family.
The restaurateur and author suffered from early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Smith was sometimes referred to as the “black Martha Stewart” due to her line of books, businesses and TV programmes.
She began suffering memory problems years before her death. Her husband began dating before she died, attracting interest as well as critics.
The daughter of a steelworker and a maid began modeling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after graduating from secondary school in the late 1960s. She went on to sign with the prominent Wilhelmina modelling agency in New York City.
In 1976 she became only the second black model to appear on the cover of Mademoiselle magazine.
During her modelling career, she travelled world capitals tasting new dishes at high-end restaurants. That experience led her to open several restaurants in New York.
In a 1997 interview with New York magazine, she said she did not mind the constant comparisons to Martha Stewart, even though they felt “a little tired”.
“Martha Stewart has presented herself doing the things domestics and African Americans have done for years,” she said.
“We were always expected to redo the chairs and use everything in the garden. This is the legacy that I was left. Martha just got there first.”
In 1992, she married her second husband Dan Gasby, who helped her build her lifestyle empire.
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