Kaiser, Inez Y.

Inez Yeargan Kaiser was born on April 22, 1918, in Kansas City, Missouri. After receiving a bachelor's degree from Kansas Teacher's College in Pittsburg, Kansas, she attended Columbia University in New York for a master's degree; there she majored in home economics and received a certificate in mass communication. The certification in mass communication first brought Kaiser exposure to public relations.

Prior to finding her place in public relations, she taught for over 20 years in public schools in Evanston, Illinois; Kansas City, Kansas; and Kansas City, Missouri. More specifically, Kaiser taught home economics in the public schools. While working as a home economics instructor, she helped organize the Home Economics Department for the Board of Education and worked with the Red Cross and the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

Additionally, she served as chairperson of the Home Economists in Business organization and was cited by Seventeen magazine as one of the most outstanding home economics teachers in the country. Kaiser was often recognized for excellence by her colleagues and was selected as Teacher of the Year by the Missouri State Teachers Association. For all of her accolades and recognitions, she was named Business Woman of the Year in Kansas City.

Kaiser was introduced to black readers and communities across America through several columns that she wrote for the black press. The columns, titled “Fashionwise and Otherwise,” “Teen Tips,” Kaiser Konsumer Korner,” and “Hints for Homemakers,” served as precursors for a second career in public relations. Using her columns as a platform and her experience as credibility, Kaiser devoted herself to educating black consumers on issues that she considered important. During the peak of her journalistic endeavors, her most widely read column, “Hints for Homemakers,” reached a national audience of over 8 million readers. She was later honored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) for her 20 years of achievements in public relations and for providing information to black consumers through the black press. Kaiser also showcased her writing talents in a book titled Soul Food Cookery in 1968, which was published by Pittman.

Kaiser used her celebrity status to help black models secure work on Seventh Avenue and was one of the first African American women to cover fashion shows and menswear showings in New York, California, and Paris for the black press. Through her columns and other journalistic activities, Kaiser made black fashion and black beauty more visible and indirectly paved the way for acclaimed models such as Tyra Banks, Iman, [Page 470]Naomi Campbell, and Tyson to grace the covers of mainstream magazines and to achieve their supermodel status. In 1980 she also received the Eartha M. White Women's Achievement Award from the National Business League for being a “pioneer black woman in the fields of public relations, fashions and the food industry.”

After retiring as a school teacher in the Kansas City School District during the late 1950s, she decided to use the notoriety gained from the press to become an entrepreneur and open her own public relations agency. Thus, Inez Kaiser and Associates, located in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, was founded in 1961. This venture accorded Kaiser the distinction of becoming the first African American female to establish a public relations firm with national accounts. In that capacity she also became the first black consultant to land a soft drink account, a pharmaceutical account, and a household account. Over the years her clients have included, but are not limited to, J. Walter Thompson, Seven-Up, Sperry and Hutchinson, Continental Baking Company, and Pillsbury. She was one of the first public relations practitioners to merge advertising and public relations when she prepared advertorials for Sterling Drug, Inc. and Sears Roebuck Company.

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