Stephanie “Tanqueray” Johnson’s life was grit, glamour, and reinvention. Born Aquila Stephanie Springle in Albany in 1944, she escaped poverty and hardship to reinvent herself in Manhattan’s after-hours burlesque world of the 1960s and ’70s.

As “Tanqueray,” she stitched her own rhinestone costumes and became a sensation across mob clubs.

late-night scenes, and fetish circuits—learning Italian while dancing for a living. In 2019, she was rediscovered by Humans of New York and became a viral storytelling star; her serialized portrait led to a bestselling memoir and a GoFundMe that raised over $2.5 million.

Tanqueray died October 11 at age 81. She transformed a hard past into raw performance, leaving a legacy of survival, style, and unfiltered truth.