Talk about a twist of fate.
Carole Gist blazed trails as the first black woman to win the Miss USA crown.
However, her iconic 1990 win almost didn't happen at all.
Having already entered the Miss Michigan USA Pageant that would be the state title that led her to her national victory, Gist had actually decided not to participate in it.
And that's where fate intervened, in the form of a tuition balance she owed from Northwood College, where she was taking undergraduate courses.
For the eventual winner, even entering in the first place took some prompting from a model friend of hers, Anthonia Dotson, who just happened to be Miss Michigan USA 1988.
"Anthonia Dotson said you should apply. She used to say you'd be a great Miss USA," Gist said, adding, "and I said I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to win."
With continued encouragement from Dotson, Gist did eventually enter for the 1989 pageant, though she mentioned, "I applied and then showed up for judging just to be considered as a delegate."
After receiving an acceptance letter for her entry to the pageant, she said "I don't want to do this and threw the letter away."
That's where, a year later, the fate entered, as on the same day Gist received a letter from her college saying that she was short for the next semester's tuition, she received a follow-up letter from the pageant saying that she was still eligible to compete in the 1990 competition based on her acceptance to the 1989 contest.
Deciding to do it to raise that needed tuition money, Gist said "I had a vision of just placing," and joked that the small amounts of donations she quickly received from different people to enter and get some wardrobe pieces would have actually paid the tuition.
After having decided to compete in the state pageant, Gist had only four days to raise money to participate and find a wardrobe for the event.
Obviously, the last-minute decision paid off, as she won the state crown and was soon on her way to Wichita, Kansas, site of the 1990 Miss USA Pageant, where she would make history for three reasons.
In addition to being the first black woman crowned, she also was the first Miss Michigan to win the title and her victory ended an unprecedented five-year win streak by the state of Texas.
Winning the state crown in a gown Gist describes as a "white , layered poofy dress," Gist impressed the judges enough to win the title and advance to the national competition, albeit without a lot of the wardrobe and coaching young women from more typical pageant states such as Texas, California and Florida had.
Other than her pageant directors, "I didn't have pageant coaches," she said, adding that as a student and an athlete - with scholarships in both track and volleyball - her participation in sports got her into shape and she didn't need a personal trainer.
Also, being a pompom girl for the school's basketball team contributed to Gist being in great shape. And, besides her participation in sports, she would take the stairs instead of an elevator and purposely park her car farther away at school so she could walk to her classes.
Her pageant directors prepped her for interview, but Gist said she already paid close attention to the news due to the government and economic courses she had enrolled in at Northwood.
"I was an athlete and didn't need a personal trainer," she said, adding that for her studies she would watch CNN and read various newspapers to prepare her for the grueling interview process, that, more often than not, determines the actual winner.
"That was the extent of my pageant preparation," she said, noting, though, that she had modeled since the age of 12 and knew how to project herself on stage.
Although she may have not been as prepared as contestants from typical pageant states, she arrived in Wichita ready to compete.
"Being from the Midwest, it was not pageant central, however, I didn't feel intimidated by the girls from the Southern states and California."
For the most part.
Gist does admit to having a few moments when she first arrived in Wichita where she did doubt herself and felt she didn't belong there, but those thoughts were short lived once she basically had a come to Jesus moment where she realized she was worthy of the competition and would just be her best version of Carole that she could be.
"I did feel intimidated initially when I first arrived," she said, adding she was thinking, "Here's this black girl competing against all these other blondes and tall brunettes. I just wanted to turn around and go back to the airport. Then I had a spiritual moment where I felt a tug on me and it made me realize that I deserved to be here."
It paid off, for Gist, who said she enjoyed the pageant experience and her other contestants immensely during her weeks leading up to the nationally televised pageant.
"I never had a negative pageant experience with girls being catty," she said, adding that she actually helped other contestants get ready backstage at times at the competition.
"I love that about me," Gist continued. "It doesn't take anything away from me to help another beautiful woman. It help pushes you to be your best. I'm not in competition with the next person in line, I'm in competition with me. You should compete against yourself to be the best person you can be.
"I just went up and introduced myself to the other girls and told myself I wasn't going to be uncomfortable. I just wanted to make me, my state and my family proud," she added.
And Gist even noted that she felt less pressure about the pageant than some of the other more seasoned competitors, especially Miss Texas, who had the legacy of the five other national winners from the Lone Star State to try and uphold.
"I saw the pressure Miss Texas was under and I prayed with and encouraged her. I cared about the human. I hope I left an impression on her for my actions that week," Gist said.
Those are actually words to live by for not only pageant contestants, but for everyone. And by living her life like that, Gist said "then you have nothing to regret, you have nothing to be ashamed of."
While Gist had no regrets about her Miss USA competition, she did have a major regret about her Miss Universe one.
After the final question at Miss USA, Gist said she felt good about her response and realized that over thinking and being self critical about her answer was a waste of time. At that point, "It was over, so just be proud of this moment," she noted.
Leaving that stage with the crown left Gist floating on cloud nine, as one would expect, although certain things did enter her mind in the moments after winning the title.
"I was thanking God and then my next thought was now maybe my family would accept me. I was always seeking approval from my family, which was due to the dynamics from how I had lived," Gist said, noting that both her father and mother had suffered from addiction at various points in her life and she had to often raise herself and seek her own approval rather than theirs.
"I was always trying to be what I thought made my family happy," she said, adding that it took years for her to recover from that and garner the amount of self esteem and pride in herself she has now.
After a short appearance at the coronation ball, Gist soon realized how different her life would be as Miss USA, as she was taken back to her room and was not allowed to have her family there, something she mentioned to them later as needing to be corrected for future titleholders.
At that point, "It was the saddest moment of the night for me. I had no family there and was hungry. I was excited and not allowed to share that with them," she said.
Having borrowed almost all her wardrobe - save her interview suit - from the wife of her boss at the hotel she had been working at in Midland, Michigan, prior to winning, Gist said the first stop they made en route to her first appearances in New York as Miss USA was to Dallas, where one of the sponsors of the pageant, JC Penney, provided her with some ensembles for her media tour and initial appearances as the national winner.
Following her win, Gist had only about a month to prepare for the Miss Universe Pageant held in April in Los Angeles. And that's where the aforementioned regret she has comes into play.
Basically exhausted by that point due to many appearances and the lack of down time in between Miss USA and Miss Universe, Gist said "I was rundown and didn't fell well. I was dropping cough drops into hot tea."
Despite not feeling 100 percent, Gist was one of three young women still left standing at the conclusion of the international event.
That pageant resulted in actually two regrets for the stately titleholder, who at 6-0 is one of the tallest Miss USA winners of all time.
The first thing she regrets she had no control over, the second one directly impacted her eventual first runner-up finish at the international event.
The pageant was originally scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka, but was moved to Los Angeles, and Gist was all excited about traveling abroad for the first time, save trips to Canada and the Bahamas, in her past.
The second regret is one she has to this day and is a source of great advice for pageant participants everywhere about second guessing things when competing.
The final question that year was if you were a judge who would you choose as Miss Universe and why?
"That was not the answer I had on my lips," she said, noting that she wanted to promote her candidacy to the judges, but "I thought that was arrogant and I would sound conceited to say myself."
At the coronation ball following the pageant, some of the judges came up to her and asked her why she gave that answer "The judges said, why did you hold back," she said, noting that had she gone with what was in her heart she would have won the pageant instead of placing as first runner up.
During her ensuing year as Miss USA, Gist lived in LA with the winner of the Miss Universe Pageant, Mona Grudt of Norway, and found that they shared similar stories and paths on to their national victories.
Both Gist and Grudt came from humble upbringings and didn't have a lot of money to buy clothes for their national pageants. That provided an instant bond between the two who "got along great" and enjoyed their living arrangements and their reigns.
And while Gist also enjoyed traveling the nation and being a representative for young people, especially in her role as an ambassador to the Boys and Girls Clubs, there were things that she didn't relish about her time as Miss USA.
Having been vocal about some of her treatment by pageant officials during her year as Miss USA, she noted that she also did not receive some of her promised prizes for winning and she spoke out about it during and after her reign, comments and actions she does not regret even if it possibly had an adverse effect on her later career aspirations in California upon relinquishing the crown.
"The prizes were not always what they said and the prize money was a salary," Gist said, noting, that other former winners had to deal with the same problems and she chose to speak out against it to protect future winners.
Putting those negatives aside, Gist says she does not regret entering nor her eventual reign, especially because of the impact she was able to have with at-risk youth, a cause she still champions.
"I had a heart for at-risk youth because that could have been me. I was driven to not be a statistic," she said, noting that at at one time in her life she had lived in a car and had to hold down three jobs at a time just to survive.
Her mantra to those she met at her Boys and Girls Clubs appearances was clear and resonating because it basically told her own life story.
"No matter what stumbling blocks or potholes life throws in your path, don't let it derail your path to achieving your dreams."
Gist noted that during her reign she soon realized the title was not "about me or for me," a sentiment that became pointedly clear as she appeared at children's hospitals and detention centers in addition to her work with the Boys and Girls Clubs.
"Don't waste the life you have or could have holding on to the thoughts or the hopes of a life you wished you had or felt you should have had," she said.
And, as has been noted, Gist's win was trailblazing and historic, both notes that weren't lost on the queen during and even after her reign.
"I kind of did see myself as a trailblazer," Gist said, adding that she had always had high aspirations, including to become the first female and black general manager of a Ritz-Carlton property.
And being a trailblazer as the first black Miss USA didn't come without pitfalls, as Gist said she received death threats during her reign, though she was basically shielded from them and only discovered the extent of the threats after her year was over.
"I got letters from people who weren't happy and I was like, 'Really? It was just a pageant,' she said. "I just wanted to spread joy and love."
Unfortunately, even today, black youth face some of the same discrimination Gist grew up with and had to deal with during her year as Miss USA and she notes that "we shouldn't have to be saying Black Lives Matter," but part of the problem has stemmed from others who do not support racism not voicing their opinions against those who do.
"That has always been a part of the problem,". Your silence is acceptance," Gist said.
As a trailblazing Miss USA, who paved the way for 10 other women of color to eventually succeed her to the throne, Gist is proud of her accomplishments, And, despite the pitfalls that any job has, she reflects now, almost 31 years later, with fondness on the year she served the nation and the the impact she made throughout the country.
With history on her side, Gist definitely maintained the integrity her predecessors brought to the crown and added her own luster to the title that her 30 other successor have worked hard to emulate.
In Part Two of my interview with Carole Gist, she will give her thoughts on the current state of the Miss USA Pageant and what she thinks of the controversial swimsuit portion of the event.
