[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 151 (Thursday, December 11, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S6688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING MARY ANN MOBLEY

 Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, my State has lost one of our 
finest citizens. Mary Ann Mobley, a friend to many and one of our best 
known Mississippians, passed away Tuesday. Mary Ann was the first young 
woman from Mississippi to be crowned Miss America, an accomplishment 
that was a source of great pride to my State. I got to know Mary Ann at 
the University of Mississippi, where she was really a superstar and a 
fine actress. Incidentally, we were cast in a University Players 
production of ``Tiger at the Gates'' at Ole Miss. She made 
Mississippians proud of her success as an entertainer in Hollywood and 
a person who kept our State close to her heart throughout her career.
  I ask unanimous consent that a December 11, 2014, article from the 
Clarion-Ledger newspaper titled ``Mary Ann Mobley `never forgot her 
roots' '' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Clarion-Ledger, Dec. 11, 2014]

                Mary Ann Mobley `Never Forgot Her Roots'

                           (By Billy Watkins)

       They danced in the streets of Brandon the night one of 
     their own, Mary Ann Mobley, was crowned the 1959 Miss 
     America.
       ``That's not just a saying, that's a fact,'' said Waymon 
     Tigrett, 70, who grew up with Mobley and has owned Brandon 
     Discount Drugs the past 46 years. ``They put a jukebox out by 
     the statue in the middle of Main Street, ran an extension 
     cord out to it and that thing blared music all night. People 
     danced and carried on for hours. It was a true celebration.
       ``You have to remember, Brandon was only about 2,000 people 
     back then. It was a small, isolated town. And all of a 
     sudden, a girl we all know is on television and winning Miss 
     America. That was a huge deal back then. And still is to 
     us.''
       Mobley, Mississippi's first Miss America, died Tuesday 
     after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 77.
       Services will be 1 p.m. Monday at Christ United Methodist 
     Church in Jackson. Visitation will be Sunday from 4-6 p.m. at 
     Parkway Funeral Home in Ridgeland.
       Mobley won the crown in September 1958, the same year she 
     graduated from the University of Mississippi.
       ``She never forgot her roots, where she came from,'' said 
     Tigrett, who lived four houses down from Mobley on what is 
     known now as Mary Ann Drive. ``Rankin County used to own 
     Rankin General Hospital, and we had a big benefit every year, 
     Affair of the Heart, to raise money for it. Mary Ann would 
     come back from Hollywood and emcee it.
       ``She remembered everybody. She treated us just the same. 
     She never got too big for us. She was the same girl who used 
     to ride palomino horses in the pasture behind her house.''
       Judy Trott, former dean of students at Ole Miss, said 
     Mobley ``was always generous with her time when it came to 
     Ole Miss.''
       ``She would come back and oversee the Miss University 
     pageant--the one she won to send her to Miss America--and the 
     Parade of Beauties, another pageant that we still hold,'' she 
     said.
       Trott wasn't surprised Mobley went on to become a popular 
     film and TV actress.
       ``Mary Ann was groomed for it,'' she said. ``She had great 
     talent, a great voice. Her mother would often come to 
     pageants up here with her, and she was outgoing and bubbly. I 
     guess that's where Mary Ann got her personality.
       ``I remember after one of the pageants taking Mary Ann and 
     her mother down to the Holka, a place you could get cake and 
     coffee. We were in there for three hours that night. It 
     wasn't just the students talking to Mary Ann, it was Mary Ann 
     talking to the students. She was interested in them, wanted 
     to know their plans, their goals. She was extremely warm and 
     outgoing. It was easy to love her.''
       Hometown friends, saddened by her death, quietly reminisced 
     Wednesday.
       Mobley not only battled breast cancer in recent years but 
     suffered carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands and arms. 
     Emails became shorter as every letter of every word required 
     effort.
       Phone calls to check on the people of her hometown also 
     became shorter, but no more infrequent. If the conversation 
     ever turned toward her own problems, Mobley would laugh and 
     find a way to quickly change the subject.
       Some of the memories stirred laughter. Such as the time 
     Mobley was to perform at Brandon High School but the family 
     car wouldn't crank. Her mother saddled a horse for the 5-mile 
     ride, and she and Mary Ann made it there in time.
       And the night Brandon folks danced in the street, the 
     celebration spread to the capital city. A few town residents 
     decided it would be a good idea to take the volunteer fire 
     department's truck and drive it up and down Jackson's Capitol 
     Street with the siren blaring. Jackson police eventually 
     tired of the racket and impounded the truck.
       Mobley also became a filmmaker, producing documentaries in 
     Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and 
     the Sudan.
       Mobley's husband of 45 years, TV personality Gary Collins, 
     died in 2012. The couple had one daughter, Clancy Collins-
     White.
       Collins-White phoned friends Tuesday in Brandon to tell 
     them of Mobley's death.
       Three other Mississippians have won the Miss America crown: 
     Lynda Lee Mead of Natchez, 1960; Cheryl Prewitt of Ackerman, 
     1980; and Susan Akin of Meridian, 1986.

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