page_title: Donyale Luna
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Donyale Luna / Early life
caption_attribution_description: The old Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan.
context_page_description: Peggy Anne Donyale Aragonea Peugot Luna, better known as Donyale Luna, was an American supermodel and actress who gained popularity in Western Europe during the late 1960s, generally cited as “the first black supermodel”, Luna was the first African American model to appear on the cover of the British edition of Vogue, in March 1966. She entered modeling in a period which favoured 'white passing models' and has been described as 'the first black model who really began to change things; to enable more diverse beauty paradigms to break through.' She is known to have been a covergirl 11 times between 1965 - 1975.
  She appeared in several underground films like the screen tests of Andy Warhol, and had roles in Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?, and most notably as Enotea in the 1969 Federico Fellini film Fellini Satyricon as well as Otto Preminger's Skidoo in the role of 'God's Mistress'.
context_section_description: Luna as she later became known, was born Peggy Ann Freeman in Detroit, Michigan, to working-class Georgian parents Nathaniel Freeman and Peggy Freeman (née Hertzog) in 1945. She was one of three daughters, Lillian, Peggy-Ann and Josephine. Her parents had moved to Detroit as part of the Great Migration. Her father worked in production at the Ford plant, being of African-American and South American (Quechuan) heritage, and her mother as a secretary for the Young Women's Christian Association, of both African-American and European heritage, been given the nickname 'Big Peggy' to differentiate her from Peggy-Ann, who was 'Little Peggy'. Luna's parents married and divorced on four separate occasions due to their 'headstrong characters' and Nathaniel's relatives alcoholism. They lived a 'financially stable upbringing in a middle-class neighbourhood of Detroit' on Scotten Avenue. As a child, she would frequently go on trips to local cinemas with her father and in summer to swim at the 'Kronk Gym' in Detroit.
  As a child, she attended the Detroit High School of Commerce, where she studied data processing and typing. As a teen, she attended Cass Technical High School, where she studied journalism, performing arts and languages and was in the school choir, local community theatre and the experimental Concept East Theater. It was during this time that she began calling herself "Donyale George Luna" aged 18, thought to have 'been her way of dealing with a turbulent home life' when her mother began raising the family as a single parent, and was also said to speak with an accent as 'Donyale', which 'she spoke not with a broad A or a French R, but in an accent she'd invented'. Her mother said 'its tone "was like she was singing". The name Luna has been speculated to be chosen for its 'symbolic dimensions, reflecting her yearning for complete, far-flung autogeny', being what Donyale described as the 'real' surname of her father, or a reference to the Space Race. At this time she wanted to pursue being an actress as a career. Luna's sister later described her as being "a very weird child, even from birth, living in a wonderland, a dream". She would routinely create fantasies about her background or 'origins' and herself. She was known then as an aspiring actress, a boyfriend, Sanders Bryant III, recalled first meeting her writing a play at lunchtime. She took roles such as Cherry in Paint Your Wagon, Ariel in The Tempest, Chastity in Anything Goes and Jean in Stage Door. After rehearsals, inspired by the Beatniks, she would go to coffeehouses around Wayne State University with her boyfriend, dressed in head to toe black. On weekends she would cross the bridge to neighboring Windsor, Ontario, travel to other nearby parts of Canada. She became known by Roland Sharette, the managing director of the Detroit Civic Center Theatre, as a 'kook' because she had a habit of walking around barefoot 'even down the street'. During the 1963 run of Paint Your Wagon she fed popcorn to pigeons when they rehearsed outdoors. 
  Contrasting her time in Europe modelling she later noted how "Back in Detroit I wasn't considered beautiful or anything". A fellow student at Cass Technical, Verna Green noted "She was such a striking image, I couldn't forget her ... She looked like an oddball to the run-of-the-mill student. Not enough people had told her how strikingly beautiful she was." She was not a 'fashion-conscious' student, her attire mostly consisting of 'simple black skirts and long loose sleeved tops'. She stated that at her time in Cass Technical, she "wasn't accepted because I talked funny, I looked funny and I was a weirdo to everyone. I grew up realizing I was strange."
  She moved to New York to pursue acting and modeling in October 1964, and worked during this time as a junior secretary at an 'electronic cabling firm on Varick Street'. She eventually moved into her own apartment with another roommate by advertising for one on Broadway, having joined their actor's union. Her sister Lillian later recalled 'she packed so little it seemed like she was going 
caption: Luna attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:04:24 07:24:14", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.5.2", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "598", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5065", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:07:24 12:15:06", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:07:24 12:15:06", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "16", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2163", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200"}