Vanilla Beane was an African American businesswoman and milliner. Beane had three children: Margaret L. Seymour, Esq., Linda R. Jefferson, and Willie G. Beane, Jr. Her first child, Willie G. Beane Jr. died in 1980 and her husband died in 1993.
Throughout her career, Beane created custom hats for local and national figures such as poet Maya Angelou and civil rights activist Dorothy Height; one of Height’s hats is featured on the USPS Forever stamp.
In 1975, she was inducted into the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers Hall of Fame, a trade group founded in 1949 in New York City for Black fashion professionals.
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One of her hats is on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The NMAAHC also has a 3D scan of a green velveteen wrap hat from the 1950s and 1960s. Vanilla Beane Day is celebrated on September 13 by the government of Washington, DC.
Vanilla Beane died on October 23, 2022, at a Washington hospital. She was 103 years old. According to her grandson Craig Seymour, the cause was complications from an aortic tear.
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