Mary Ann Mobley Collins

Mary Ann Mobley Collins, 77, died at her Beverly Hills, California home Tuesday morning, December 9, 2014. Services will be held on Monday, December 15, 2014 at Christ United Methodist Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Visitation will be 4:00-6:00pm Sunday December 14, 2014 at Parkway Funeral Home in Ridgeland and 1:00-2:00pm Monday at the church. Burial will be in Parkway Memorial Cemetery.

A native of Mississippi, the former Miss America, actress and humanitarian led a fascinating and varied life. A Golden Globe winner, Mobley starred opposite Elvis Presley on screen, performed death-defying circus acts in television's Circus of the Stars and dedicated many years to documenting the young victims of war and starvation in places like Cambodia, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Sudan.

Mobley was blessed to have achieved success in film, television, Broadway, personal appearances and as a documentary filmmaker. She appeared in countless television series including Diff'rent Strokes, Fantasy Island, Love Boat, Falcon Crest and Hearts Afire along with hundreds of additional television guest appearances.

Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, Mobley was crowned on September 6, 1958 as Miss America 1959 (Mississippi’s first Miss America). Her career started on Broadway in the musical Nowhere To Go But Up, followed by the revival of Guys and Dolls in Boston, the first of 16 productions starring Mobley as Sarah Brown. Some of her other musical productions included Brigadoon, The King and I, Oklahoma, Cabaret, Pajama Game, On A Clear Day, Irene, Music Man, Hello Dolly, Finian’s Rainbow, Love Letters and countless others. For her musical work, she was voted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in 2002.

Mobley was the first woman ever to be voted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame. The group included her friend from years at Ole Miss, William Faulkner.

In 1967, she married Gary Collins. The couple was active as volunteers and fiercely committed to numerous worthwhile causes, traveling the world with various relief organizations to end world hunger. Mobley was a member of the National Board of Trustees for the March of Dimes, The National Crohn's and Colitis Foundation and The National Council on Disability. She was also a passionate advocate for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and for Childhelp (from whom she received the 1999 Woman of the World Award). She also served on The National Advisory Board of the Eudora Welty Foundation.

In recent years, Mobley completed a three-season run at the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs in a new musical entitled “Senior Class” and debuted a new cabaret act.

She is survived by daughters Clancy Collins White and Melissa Collins; son Guy William Collins; their respective spouses William Dean White and Michelle Collins; sister Sandra Young; and two grandsons, Garrett and Gaston Collins.

Memorial gifts may be made to the Mary Ann Mobley Collins Scholarship Fund at the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Avenue, Oxford, MS 38655 or online at www.umfoundation.com/giving or by calling 1-800-340-9542. Checks should be made payable to the University of Mississippi Foundation designated for the Mary Ann Mobley Collins Scholarship Fund.

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