Tyrenda Williams-Reed, 1st Black woman to win America’s Junior Miss, has died (2024)

Tyrenda Williams-Reed, who represented Alabama in the America’ Junior Miss program in 1997 and became the first Black woman to win the competition, has died, according to the Distinguished Young Woman program and other sources.

America’s Junior Miss, a scholarship competition based in Mobile, became Distinguished Young Women in 2010. The organization posted news of Williams-Reed’s death on Wednesday.

“The Distinguished Young Women Family is saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Tyrenda Williams-Reed, our national representative for 1997,” the organization said in a Facebook post. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family during this time. Tyrenda was more than just a titleholder; she was a beacon of grace, intelligence, and compassion who touched the lives of many. Tyrenda’s warmth and infectious spirit left an indelible mark on our hearts. As we reflect on her remarkable journey, let us celebrate the profound impact Tyrenda made and the legacy she leaves behind. Though her time with us was all too brief, her memory will continue to inspire and guide us.”

The Distinguished Young Women of Alabama State Committee said in a post on Thursday that “Tyrenda’s dedication, passion, and positive spirit left an indelible mark on our hearts and on the hearts of everyone with whom she came into contact. As we mourn her passing, we celebrate the legacy she leaves behind — one of commitment, kindness, and excellence. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones during this difficult time. She will be greatly missed but never forgotten.”

A Florida funeral home said that Williams-Reed had died on Monday. Details about the circ*mstances were not available. As of early Thursday afternoon, arrangements had not been published.

According to archival Press-Register and Birmingham News stories, Tyrenda Williams was a recent graduate of Vestavia Hills High School when she was named America’s Junior Miss at the 40th AJM finals in June 1997. At Vestavia Hills she had been secretary of the National Honor Society and the debate team, a student government representative and homecoming queen. Her father, Tyrone Williams, was identified as a middle school principal and her mother, Jerona Williams, as a high school teacher. During the competition, she performed ballet to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Her win was significant for the program. For a time in the early ‘90s three Black members of the Mobile City Council blocked funding to America’s Junior Miss because they said it lacked diversity.

After her win, she said she didn’t want to be viewed as a “Black Junior Miss,” but rather as someone who represented the ideals of the program.

“I feel it’s significant in that it will serve to motivate some people who look to a role model who has things in common with them,” she said. “But what I think is more important is not that I’m necessarily a black American who won this title, but I was myself. And that’s what Junior Miss teaches us, to be your best self.”

Williams also was the second Alabama competitor to be named America’s Junior Miss, after Stephanie Ashmore in 1983.

According to archival stories and professional biographies, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Birmingham-Southern College, where she was a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, and a master’s in journalism and Latin American & Caribbean Studies from New York University. She was among the Birmingham Business Journal’s 2016 “Women to Watch” and in 2001 served as a guest professor of English and American Culture at a college in Hungary.

She stayed involved in the world of pageants and scholarship competitions: As recently as 2021 she served as a judge for the Miss Alabama competition.

She felt strongly about her Birmingham-Southern connection. In a LinkedIn post about the school’s closure earlier this year, she described grieving over the closure. “Fortunately, one of the many things I learned at BSC is that my faith does not require my understanding,” she wrote. “I count it a blessing to know how the Easter story ends and have that same assurance that the divine purpose of BSC has just begun. Soon we will come to know a Church with no walls and now we begin to understand the legacy of BSC as a community and college with no walls. The list is too long of friends, Presidents, professors, lunchroom ladies, mailroom clerks, Alumni office staff that would need to be thanked for how these modern-day disciples changed and saved my life.”

Williams-Reed had worked in human resources and communications for organizations including Cobbs Allen, America’s Thrift Stores and the A.G. Gaston Boys & Girls Club. In recent years she also had worked as a Realtor specializing in the Birmingham and Naples, Fla., areas. She also was active with the Public Relations Society of America’s Alabama chapter.

Another tribute to Williams-Reed came from John Laskow, a veteran AJM judge.

“I had the honor of serving on the Judging Panel when she competed in a preliminary for the title of Miss Alabama,” Laskow posted on Facebook. In his 40-plus years as a judge, he said, “Tyrenda had the BEST INTERVIEW that I’ve ever conducted! What an incredible young woman!”