Stephanie “Tanqueray” Johnson’s life was a mix of grit, glamour, and survival. Born Aquila Stephanie Springle in 1944 in Albany, New York, she fled a strict upbringing after becoming a pregnant teen and rebuilt her life in Manhattan. There, she reinvented herself and became an icon of New York nightlife.

Known as Tanqueray, she shined in the 1960s and ’70s burlesque scene, sewing her own rhinestone costumes and performing in mob-run clubs. As she famously said, “Back in the seventies, I was the only Black girl making white girl money.” Her stories of “mob bosses, fashion, and danger” captured the wild pulse of the city.

In 2019, photographer Brandon Stanton met her for Humans of New York. Her raw, witty 33-part story went viral, raising over $2.5 million for her medical care and inspiring her bestselling 2022 memoir Tanqueray.

Behind her bold persona, Stanton described “such softness,” noting she “slept with a teddy bear until the day she died.”

Stephanie died on October 11 at 81. Her legacy endures as “a testament to resilience, creativity, and unfiltered truth”—a woman who turned hardship into art and laughter into survival.