New York City has never been short on characters, but few embodied its grit, glamour, and contradiction quite like Stephanie Johnson—known to the world as Tanqueray. Her death on October 11, 2025, at age 81 marked more than the passing of a person. It closed a chapter on a kind of urban mythology that can only be born in a city that rewards reinvention as much as endurance.
Born Aquila Stephanie Springle in 1944, Tanqueray’s story began far from the glitter of Manhattan nightlife. Raised in Albany under strict religious and financial constraints, her early life was shaped by hardship. As a teenager, she was forced out of her home while pregnant and later spent time incarcerated—experiences that could have defined her limits but instead sharpened her resolve. When she eventually arrived in Manhattan, she came not just to survive, but to remake herself entirely.
That reinvention took hold in the 1960s and ’70s, when she became Tanqueray—a burlesque performer whose name would quietly echo through New York’s after-hours world. She stitched her own costumes, adorned with beads, feathers, and rhinestones, and navigated a nightlife scene that ranged from underground drag spaces to mob-controlled clubs. She was keenly aware of her position as a Black woman in predominantly white venues and spoke candidly about the skill it took to thrive there. Talent, timing, and intelligence kept her visible—and safe. Even learning Italian backstage became a survival tactic, a way to understand the rooms she commanded.
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