Marilyn Van Derbur
| Marilyn Van Derbur | |
|---|---|
| Marilyn Van Derbur
Marilyn Van Derbur
|
|
| Born | June 16, 1937 Denver, Colorado, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Colorado |
| Title | Miss America 1958 |
| Predecessor | Marian McKnight |
| Successor | Mary Ann Mobley |
| Spouse(s) | Gary Austin Nady (1 June 1961 - 6 March 1962) (divorced) Lawrence Atlivaick Atler (14 February 1964 - present) (1 child) |
| Children | Jennifer Atler |
| Parent(s) | Francis S. Van Derbur Gwendolyn Olinger Van Derbur |
Marilyn Elaine Van Derbur (born June 16, 1937) is the Miss Colorado 1957,[1] 1958 Miss America pageant holder,[2][3] author and motivational speaker.[3] In 2011, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.[4] She founded the Survivor United Network (SUN),[5] and authored Miss America By Day: Lessons Learned from Ultimate Betrayals and Unconditional Love,[6][7] which spent 13 weeks on Colorado's top ten non-fiction bestsellers list and was awarded the Writer's Digest Most Inspirational Book award (first place) in 2003.[8]
Biography
Marilyn Van Derbur was born on June 16, 1937 in Denver, Colorado.[2] After being crowned Miss America in 1958, Marilyn returned to the University of Colorado and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors. After graduation, she moved to New York City where she was the television spokeswoman for AT&T's The Bell Telephone Hour[9][10] and hosted ten shows of Candid Camera. Also hosted The Cotton Bowl Parade, the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the opening of The World’s Fair. In addition, she was the television hostess for The Miss America Pageant for five years.
She became a motivational speaker in her early 20's. By her mid 30's, Marilyn had been chosen “The Outstanding Woman Speaker in America”. Marilyn was the first woman to be given this highest speaking award possible by the National Speakers Association.
Marilyn was of only 13 guest lecturers for General Motors. She was, however, the only woman. Giving as many as 200 speeches a year, she has addressed almost every major national civic and business conference in America – including the National Bankers Association, the Michigan Congressional annual dinner (she was introduced by Gerald Ford), and Sales & Marketing Executives International. She has also spoken in other countries. For example, she was the keynote speaker at the “Young President’s Organization” in Copenhagen and the European Council of Schools in Brussels. She was the first woman speaker to be a keynote speaker for large business annual sales conferences such as IBM and Kodak. In most instances, Marilyn was the first woman to be asked to address these major conferences, long dominated by male speakers. After addressing the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, Franklin G. Sisson, who was the president of Michigan Association of Broadcasters in 1969[11] (now Karole L. White[12]), wrote: “Marilyn proved to be, without qualification, the highlight of the convention and received a completely spontaneous standing ovation – one of the very few times that’s happened during the many years I’ve been attending these annual meetings.”
Wanting to motivate teenagers, she asked United Air Lines to sponsor 50 youth state conventions each year. They agreed immediately and Marilyn became “United Airlines Youth Speaker.” United also filmed one of Marilyn’s speeches and made it available to youth organizations. Although they had 100 copies, there was a six month waiting list.
Wanting to reach students who would never be selected to go to a convention, she asked one of her television accounts, Best Foods, to sponsor 50 high school assemblies a year. If she were scheduled to address the Dallas Chamber of Commerce in the evening, she would book two or three high school assemblies in Dallas during the day. Marilyn also asked Best Foods to sponsor the production costs of eight motivational films which Marilyn wrote and narrated. The films were shown as a mini-course in classes across America and won two national and one international award.
The impact of her messages in the films was so powerful that she was asked to be a keynote speaker for the National Association of Secondary School Principals four years in a row. The executive director of the National Ass’n. wrote: “You received a rare standing ovation…The principals returned to their assignments with new leases on life…”
On May 8, 1991,[13] in Denver, Marilyn Van Derbur told the world that her father had sexually molested by her between the ages of 5 and 18.[14][10][15] Her mother reportedly refused to believe her. Then she asked the Kempe National Center in Denver to begin an adult survivor program to help other men and women who were just beginning their healing process. Her family contributed $250,000 to establish the program which would also concentrate on research.[16]
Filmography
| Television | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2006 | CMT: Greatest Miss America Moments (TV Special) | Herself | |
| 1967 | The Match Game (TV Series) | Team Captain | Season 5, Episodes 129-133 |
| 1962 | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (TV Series) | Herself | Episode dated 25 October 1962 |
| 1961 | The Bell Telephone Hour (TV Series) | Herself - Host | Season 3, Episode 6 Season 3, Episode 14 |
| 1958 | Miss America Pageant (TV Movie) | Herself (Miss America) | |
| 1957 | Person to Person (TV Series documentary) | Herself | Season 5, Episode 8 |
References
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- ↑ Profile, alamosanews.com; accessed December 15, 2014.
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External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Miss America 1958 |
Succeeded by Mary Ann Mobley |
| Preceded by
Polly Childs
|
Miss Colorado 1957 |
Succeeded by Cynthia Cullen |
