Clarence O. Smith, a founder of Essence Magazine, is dead at 92

Clarence O. Smith in 1990. He spent 32 years at Essence magazine, primarily as its president in charge of marketing and advertising. (Photo credit: Jack Manning/The New York Times)

Clarence O. Smith, who convinced skeptical advertisers of the power and worth of the Black female consumer market in becoming a founder of Essence, the first general-circulation magazine directed at Black women, died on April 21. He was 92.

Mr. Smith, who lived in Yonkers, New York, died in a hospital after a short illness, his niece Kimberly Fonville Boyd said. She provided no other details.

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