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Friends, family, and business associates all described Owens as an aspiring entrepreneur with a strong social conscience, a woman who risked everything and never gave up. Owens, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2019, battled both at the same time. People close to Owens said that even though she feared financial ruin and her own death, she mostly kept it to herself.
“She was fearless,” said Maya Johnson, Owens’ daughter. “She took her thing day by day and we were with her on that journey.”
Owens’ journey began in Atlanta, where she spent her entire life, aside from college and early career. He pursued various creative interests, including drawing. But it was when she visited Shreveport, Louisiana over the summer and met her grandmother, Kosata Blackmon, who everyone called her “her mother,” that made the biggest impression on Owens. bottom. These experiences ultimately led Owens to her entrepreneurial career.
Owens was drawn to his grandmother’s garden, wild and eclectic, where the plants that grew there were not neatly arranged. From that garden, Blackmon treated Owens’ children’s eczema by soaking them in a mixture of onions, garlic and collard greens. college), Blackmon sent her a care package that included natural skin treatments prepared using fruits and vegetables from her backyard.
But it took many years for Owens to return to the roots planted by his grandmother. Persuaded by his parents to pursue his path in a wise career, his Owens attended college on a scholarship in mathematics and computer science. I graduated. He then worked for IBM in Dallas, then followed his corporate career path at Home Depot and his SunTrust Bank in Atlanta.
But over time, Owens felt pulled in a different direction. She left SunTrust to develop a fledgling new company. Owens branded it with the loose acronym “IWI,” which stands for her favorite slogan, “It’s what it is.”
Her decision unsettled her family. After all, Owens was the first of them to graduate from college. In her “Made in America” ​​interview, Owens recalled telling them she “has to go after her true self.”
Owens downsized, turning his home into a mini manufacturing plant and making a name for himself by setting up booths at public events and trade shows. She educated local spa employees about the benefits of natural products that require refrigeration and how to use them.
In 2010, Owens opened Fresh Farm to Skin Spa in Castleberry Hill, Atlanta. She invited other entrepreneurs, including musicians and craftsmen, to the space and offered entrepreneurship workshops. Celebrities started stopping by her spa, and in 2017 her products began appearing in her local Whole Foods store.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Owens successfully persuaded Whole Foods to expand its online business, offer curbside service and sell iwi products in more stores Did. Owens applied for and obtained business grants and loans to keep the company alive, and delayed opening his 12,000-square-foot “rest house” on his road in Jonesboro.
That facility is now open, and Owens’ business is picking up in her absence.
“Yolanda was incredibly strong-willed. When she set her sights on something, she worked until she got it,” said Shante Robinson, her cousin who works at iwi. “She used to say, ‘How do you know it won’t work if she doesn’t try?'”
Owens is survived by two sons, Jordan and Austin Johnson, and a daughter, Maya Johnson, who was within days of giving birth. His parents, Ralph Hill and Marie Henderson. He has two brothers, Corey Henderson and Berard Hill. and one grandson, Jah Johnson.
The family will soon announce plans for a memorial service.
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