Inez Yeargan Kaiser was born on April 22, 1918, and died on July 31, 2016.
She was an African-American educator, public relations expert, and entrepreneur.
Inez Y. Kaiser was the first African-American woman to run a public relations company with national clients.
She was a teacher of home economics for more than 20 years in public schools.
During 1957, Inez founded Inez Kaiser & Associates, which was both the first public relations firm led by an African-American woman and the first business owned by an African American to open in Kansas City.
As of the early 1960s, after securing 7 Up and other big accounts, she had become the first African-American woman to run a public relations firm with national clients.
Kaiser was the first African-American woman to join the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Public Relations Society of America, the profession’s trade association.
She began writing a column, “Fashion Wise and Otherwise”, as a hobby, but she became so interested in helping other African-American women that she devoted several years to contacting publishers across the country, as well as promoting the use of pictures of models of color, giving them employment in areas where they had never been considered before.
Inez also wrote a column in The Kansas City Star titled “As I See It”.
She was a life-long Republican, and she advised the Nixon and Ford administrations on issues related to minority women and business.
Inez Y. Kaiser passed away at 98 years old.