Sara Lou Harris Carter

Sara Lou Harris Carter (July 4, 1923 – December 16, 2016) was a pioneering African-American model also known as an entertainer, educator, and humanitarian.

She was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina on July 4, 1923 to a house painter and a cotton mill worker. Carter died December 16, 2016.

She was the first African American model to be featured in a national poster campaign in the 1940s for Lucky Strike cigarettes. She also broke barriers by becoming the first black model in the New York buyers fashion show thus changing the face of the black woman model from servant to glamour girl.

Sara Lou Carter graduated from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1943 with a BA in Education. After graduation, she taught third grade in her native North Carolina. She continued her studies for a master's degree at Columbia University in New York. While at Columbia, she supported herself by working as a model, actress, dancer and doing radio and television work.

Famously known for her elegance and charm, Sara became the first African American châtelaine of the embassy when her husband John Carter of Guyana became ambassador to the United States, Canada and the United Nations. Her husband was knighted in 1966, which entitled her to use the title Lady Sara Carter.

She suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and died on Friday, December 16, 2016 following the death of a granddaughter from cancer earlier in 2016.