Barbara Stone Of Southampton Dies April 26

Barbara Stone of Southampton died on April 26 at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn. She was 87.

Born on November 20, 1933 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Ms. Stone was an icon of the New York fashion industry in the 1970s. She served as photo editor at Conde Nast’s Glamour Magazine in the mid 1960s before co-founding Stewart Models, and then her own agency, Stone Models, in the early 1970s.

Ms. Stone helped shape the industry and launch the era of the “Supermodel.” She had a keen eye for beauty, discovering some of the top models of the period including Twiggy, Marisa Berenson, Sybil Sheppard, Randi Oaks, Kate Jackson, Cheryl Tiegs, Jane Gil and Joanne Pateman. Martha Stewart, while attending Barnard College, also modeled with Ms. Stone’s agency.

Ms. Stone was at the center of New York City’s social life, hosting elite parties with celebrities like Joe Namath and Peter Beard at her apartment on the upper west side. Ms. Stone once famously denied entrance to an uninvited group of young musicians trying to gain access to one of her parties. The group was called The Rolling Stones.

Ms. Stone retired from the fashion industry in 1981, and in 1990 moved to the Hamptons, where she created and published an annual literary collection of short stories entitled “Hampton Shorts,” featuring short stories contributed by notable authors including Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, James Salter, Robert Benton, Bruce J. Friedman, Spalding Gray, Edward Albee, Budd Schulberg and Daniel Stern.

Ms. Stone is survived by her husband, Richard Stone; daughter, Julie Stone; and son, Lucas Stone.