Mary Ann Mobley

Mary Ann Mobley (February 17, 1937 – December 9, 2014) was an American actress, television personality, and Miss America 1959. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in Brandon, Mississippi, where she attended and graduated from Brandon High School. She later enrolled at the University of Mississippi, where she became a member of Chi Omega sorority.

Mobley was crowned Miss America 1959, becoming the first woman from Mississippi to hold the title and earning the national talent award in the process. Thirty years later, in September 1988, she returned to the pageant as co-host of the 1989 Miss America broadcast alongside her husband, Gary Collins.

Following her Miss America reign, Mobley pursued careers in film, television, and theater. She made her Broadway debut in 1962 in Nowhere to Go But Up. She signed a five-year contract with MGM and made her first television appearance on Be Our Guest in 1960. In 1965, she appeared in two films opposite Elvis Presley, Girl Happy and Harum Scarum, and that same year received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress. Lady Bird Johnson presented her with the Outstanding Young Woman of the Year Award in 1966.

Her television work spanned several decades and included five appearances on Burke's Law between 1963 and 1965, multiple appearances on Perry Mason, Love American Style, and Fantasy Island, and occasional stints as a celebrity panelist on Match Game from 1973 to 1977. In 1966, she was the featured female guest star in the first two-part episode of Mission: Impossible, titled "Old Man Out." She and Collins appeared together as Dr. and Mrs. Diller in the second season of The Love Boat, and from 1984 to 1988 the couple co-hosted the Pillsbury Bake-Off on CBS. On Diff'rent Strokes, Mobley appeared first as Arnold's teacher in season two and later took over the recurring role of Maggie McKinney Drummond from Dixie Carter during the series' final season. She also guest-starred on Designing Women as Karen Delaporte, a historical society leader who clashes with Carter's character Julia Sugarbaker. Mobley appeared in the PBS American Experience documentary Miss America, which aired on January 27, 2002, and is briefly depicted as a character in the third season of the Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, portrayed by Amanda Dela Cruz.

Her film credits include Get Yourself a College Girl (1964), Young Dillinger (1965), Three on a Couch (1966), The King's Pirate (1967), and For Singles Only (1968).

Mobley married actor and television host Gary Collins in 1967 at Brandon United Methodist Church. The couple had one daughter, Mary Clancy Collins, and Mobley was also stepmother to Collins's children from a prior marriage, Melissa Collins and Guy William Collins. The couple separated in 2010 but later reconciled and were living in Biloxi at the time of Collins's death on October 13, 2012. In 1981, Mobley was inducted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame.

Mobley lived with Crohn's disease and was an advocate for improved treatment of the condition. She was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer in 2009 and served on the National Council on Disability throughout her life. She was also active with the March of Dimes, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. Mobley died at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on December 9, 2014, at the age of 77, from breast cancer.