EEW Magazine // Notable Deaths

Model, restaurateur and lifestyle guru Barbara “B.” Smith has died at her Long Island home, her family announced in a statement on social media. She was 70.

Smith died Saturday evening after battling early onset Alzheimer’s disease which she was diagnosed with in 2013.

“Heaven is shining even brighter now that it is graced with B.’s dazzling and unforgettable smile,” her husband Dan Gasby said in a lengthy Facebook post honoring her life. He also thanked all of his late wife’s caregivers “who helped us make B. comfortable in her final days.”

Dan Gasby and B. Smith at the Inaugural Ball hosted by BET Networks at Smithsonian American Art Museum & National Portrait Gallery on January 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Credit: Bennett Raglin/Getty)

Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior, and once symptoms begin, there is no treatment. Smith began suffering from memory problems years before her diagnosis, her husband said. She once froze for several seconds while being interviewed on the “Today Show,” unprecedented for the experienced star, prompting a doctor’s visit.

Doctors gave Smith a prescription for anti-depressants; later tests revealed Smith had early onset Alzheimer’s.

“She looked at me and she says, ‘We’re not going to hide, we’re not going to let someone else define us,’” Gasby said of the day Smith was diagnosed. “We’re going to tell our story.”

Doctors explained that the progressive disease in the brain is like potholes in the road, so neurons go astray when they try to send messages to other parts of the brain, causing behavioral fluctuations, Gasby said.

Two queens! Aretha Franklin and B. Smith attend the BET Honors 2012 Pre-Honors dinner at the Corcoran Gallery of Art on January 13, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Credit: Kris Connor/Getty)

A few months after her diagnosis, Smith wandered away and was missing in New York City for a day before someone recognized her, and she was safely returned home.

Smith will be remembered for her innovation, beauty, drive and creativity. During the length of her career, she wrote three cookbooks, founded three successful restaurants and launched a nationally syndicated TV show and a magazine. She had a successful home products line and is the only black woman to have her brand distributed exclusively at Bed Bath & Beyond. She became, in 1976, the second black model to be on the cover of Mademoiselle Magazine, after Joli Jones in 1969.

In 2018, while continuing to care for Smith, Gasby went public with his relationship with girlfriend Alex Lerner in a Facebook post, causing controversy.

“B. told me to live, to go on, as I’ve told her,” Gasby told PEOPLE in 2019. “Anyone who says B. didn’t do that doesn’t know B. We wanted each other to be happy.”

May B. Smith rest in power.