Marjorie Judith Vincent is an American journalist and former beauty contestant who was crowned Miss America 1991.

Early life and education

Vincent's parents, Lucien and Florence Vincent of

Cap-Haïtien Cap-Haïtien (; ht, Kap Ayisyen; "Haitian Cape"), typically spelled Cape Haitien in English and often locally referred to as or , is a commune of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the department of Nord. Previousl ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

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 Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...

, attending Catholic school and taking ballet and piano lessons. Vincent entered

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

as a music major, switching to business in junior year and graduating in 1988. Winnings from beauty pageants helped to pay her schooling.

Pageantry

After two unsuccessful pageant tries, at

Miss North Carolina The Miss North Carolina competition selects the representative for the state of North Carolina to compete in the annual Miss America competition. The competition has been held in Raleigh every year since 1978. Prior to that, it was held in vario ...

and

Miss Illinois The Miss Illinois is a pageant program affiliated with Miss America, which is competition for women models representing the state of Illinois. The first "Miss Illinois" sent to the national pageant was Lois Delander who subsequently won the Mis ...

, she won Miss Illinois, allowing her to advance to

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...

. At the Miss America pageant, she performed the

Fantaisie-Impromptu Frédéric Chopin's ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' ( pl, Fantazja-Impromptu) in C minor, Op. posth. 66, WN 46 is a solo piano composition. It was composed in 1834 and published posthumously in 1855 despite Chopin's instruction that none of ...

(Op. posth. 66) by Chopin, won the crown, and became Miss America 1991 on 7 September 1990, succeeding

Debbye Turner 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. Early life and education Turner was born in Honolulu, Haw ...

. Her win marked the first occasion in which there were back-to-back African American Miss America winners. Vincent was the last Miss America to be serenaded by

Bert Parks Bert Parks (born Bertram Jacobson; December 30, 1914 – February 2, 1992) was an American actor, singer, and radio and television announcer, best known for hosting the annual Miss America telecast from 1955 to 1979. Early life Parks was bor ...

Career

Vincent, who already had two years in law school at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

before becoming Miss America, changed her goal from international law to television journalism, becoming a news anchor at

WGBC WGBC (channel 30) is a television station in Meridian, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with Fox and NBC. It is owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, which provides certain services to CBS affiliate WMDN (channel 24) u ...

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the count ...

in October 1993. She later worked at WHOI in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

and the

Ohio News Network {{Table Oghamletters Onn is the Irish name of the seventeenth letter of the Ogham alphabet, ᚑ, meaning "ash-tree", which is related to Welsh ''onn(en)'', from the root was *''ōs-, *osen'' 'ash'. Its phonetic value is The letter's Bríathar ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. Vincent completed her J.D. degree at

Florida Coastal School of Law Florida Coastal School of Law was a private for-profit law school in Jacksonville, Florida. It was established in 1996 and was the last operating of three for-profit law schools of the InfiLaw System owned by Sterling Partners. Because of fu ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. She's been admitted to the Florida Bar since 2011 and previously worked for the Office of the Attorney General in Daytona Beach, Florida. She currently works as an ADA in Alabama

Personal life

Vincent has a son, Cameron, who was born in 1994. She married Wesley Tripp in November 2006.

References

External links

Bio at MissAmerica.orgVideo of her talent performanceVideo of her crowning as Miss America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vincent, Marjorie 1964 births Living people American television news anchors DePaul University alumni Duke University alumni Florida Coastal School of Law alumni Miss America 1991 delegates Miss America Preliminary Talent winners Miss America winners People from Oak Park, Illinois Journalists from Illinois American women television journalists 21st-century American women