Early life and career Born in
Black Mountain, North Carolina in 1932, Gardner was mainly raised by her grandmother. She attended high school in Asheville, NC and studied at
Talladega College, Alabama graduating after three years with a degree in English and education and, a year later, in 1954, she gained a further degree in psychology and sociology. Her earliest occupations were in teaching, counseling and social work. After forming a friendship with Sid McCoy, a Chicago-based disc jockey whose family owned a record store in the city, she was hired by
VeeJay Records, with which McCoy was also connected, on his recommendation. She wrote publicity material for the company and liner notes for its album releases. She was the only African American woman working in such a position in the music industry at that time. In the early part of her career (as Barbara J. Gardner), she was a freelance jazz critic writing for
DownBeat magazine; she later joined the staff and became a contributing editor. Meanwhile, around 1960, Gardner became director of VeeJay Records' International Division. VeeJay was responsible for releasing The Beatles earliest records in the United States, via a deal in early 1963 which Gardner made with
EMI executives in London.
Career in advertising In 1964, she was hired by the Post-Keyes-Gardner Agency, where she began using her married name Proctor so as to not share a name with one of the agency partners. She won 21 awards in three years at that agency. In 1969, she worked at Gene Taylor Associates as a copy supervisor, and later that year worked at North in a similar position. But she thought that at North she was limited to dealing with beauty and household products, and that the company focused on pleasing the customer rather than selling the product. She was fired from North for refusing to work on an advertising campaign for a hair care product which she felt demeaned the
Civil rights movement. Gardner Proctor recalled in an interview for
C-SPAN: "they wanted me to do a ‘foam-in’ demonstration in the streets, with women running down the streets waving hair spray cans. I said I would never do that." Therefore, she began her own advertising agency in 1970, called Proctor and Gardner Advertising, Inc. using her own name and her married name assisted by a loan from the
Small Business Administration. Her 1960 marriage to Carl Proctor had ended in divorce in 1963, but she used this form to overcome any chauvinism from potential clients. It quickly became the second largest African American advertisement agency in the United States. In 1995, the company filed for bankruptcy. ==Awards==