Mary Ann Mobley, who was Mississippi’s first Miss America, died Tuesday at her Beverly Hills home. She was 77.

Mary Ann Mobley Dies

Mobley won the Miss America pageant in 1959, and parlayed the success into a career in entertainment. On the theater stage, she appeared in Guys and Dolls and The King and I. Up on the big screen, she starred in Harum Scarum and Girl Happy with Elvis Presley, as well as Young Dillinger.

On the small screen, Mobley landed a number of recurring roles, including parts on Perry Mason, Mission: Impossible, Run For Your Life, The Sixth Sense and The Love Boat. In the late 80s, she played Maggie McKinney Drummond in Diff’rent Strokes and followed that up with an arc on Falcon Crest.

In addition to her acting work, Mobley was known as a devoted humanitarian. She and her late husband Gary Collins, whom she married in 1967, became philanthropists with a focus on ending hunger around the world.

Mobley is survived by daughters Clancy Collins White and Melissa Collins, son Guy William Collins and two grandchildren.