Debbye Turner Bell (born September 19, 1965, in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American TV anchor, veterinarian, talk show host, former beauty queen and winner of the 1990 Miss America pageant three days before her 24th birthday.
Debbye Turner, raised in Jonesboro, Arkansas, was first runner-up at the Miss Arkansas Pageant, a state preliminary competition for the Miss America program in 1988. In the summer of 1989, she won the Miss Missouri title and went on to win the 1990 Miss America crown. Turner was the third African-American national titleholder and the first, and only (as of 2016) Miss Missouri to be crowned Miss America.
Turner earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree from Arkansas State University and attended the University of Missouri. Turner also spent a couple of years honing her public service skills working for Safeway Stores. In 1991, she received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. She became a spokesperson for Purina and pursued a career in veterinary medicine before going into television.
Turner’s first hosting job came at St. Louis’ NBC affiliate KSDK, on a show called Show Me St. Louis in 1995. Six years later, Turner joined CBS News as a feature correspondent then became their “resident veterinarian” and a fill-in anchor. Turner was also a fill-in anchor on the CBS Morning News. Turner left CBS in 2012. She’s currently the host of Arise America, on Arise News.
She has also appeared on Animal Planet’s Cats 101 and Dogs 101 series.
Turner is a singer, pianist, and skilled percussionist, evidenced by her marimba rendition of ‘”Flight of the Bumblebee”‘ in the talent portion of the 1990 Miss America contest. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Debbye Turner’s older sister, Suzette Turner, is married to Houston megachurch pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell.
Marjorie Judith Vincent (born 21 November 1964) is a journalist and former beauty contestant who was crowned Miss America 1991.
Vincent’s parents, Lucien and Florence Vincent of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti migrated to the United States in the early 1960s; Marjorie was the first of their children to be born in the United States. She grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, attending Catholic school and taking ballet and piano lessons. Vincent entered DePaul University as a music major, switching to business in her junior year and graduating in 1988. Winnings from beauty pageants helped to pay her schooling.
After two unsuccessful pageant tries, at Miss North Carolina and Miss Illinois, she won Miss Illinois, allowing her to advance to Miss America. At the Miss America pageant, she performed the Fantaisie-Impromptu by Chopin, won the crown, and became Miss America 1991 on 7 September 1990, succeeding Debbye Turner. It was the pageant’s 70th anniversary, and former pageant emcee Bert Parks appeared as a guest. Host Gary Collins had Parks sing “There She Is” as Vincent walked the runway. It was Parks’ last appearance at the pageant; he died two years later in 1992. Thus, Marjorie Vincent was the last Miss America to be serenaded by Bert Parks.
Vincent, who already had two years in law school at Duke University before becoming Miss America, changed her goal from international law to television journalism, becoming a news anchor at WGBC in Meridian, Mississippi in October 1993. She later worked at WHOI in Peoria, Illinois, and the Ohio News Network in Columbus, Ohio, for the next six-plus years.
Vincent was completed her law degree at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Florida.