Happy Birthday to Dr. Deidre Downs, First Miss America to Marry a Woman

Deidre Downs Gunn  was born today, July 7, in 1980. She is an American physician and former beauty pageant titleholder. Downs was Miss Alabama 2004 and later was crowned Miss America 2005.

After graduating from Pelham High School in 1998, Downs attended the University of Virginia on a volleyball scholarship. After her freshman year of college at the University of Virginia, Downs chose to focus on her studies and aspiration to go to medical school and ultimately transferred to Samford University. Her transfer resulted in her losing her scholarship, so she began competing in local pageants to earn scholarship money. She graduated magna cum laude in 2002 from Samford University with a degree in history and a double-minor in biology and chemistry. She was also a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship in 2002.

After completing her stint as Miss America, she began medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UAB) in Birmingham. She received her Doctor of Medicine in 2010 and then completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the UAB Medical Center in 2014. She continued her education at the UAB Medical Center and completed her fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility in 2017.

After Downs married her college sweetheart, Andrew Gunn, in March 2008, she changed her name to Deidre Downs Gunn. They had a son in 2010. The couple later divorced.

Downs remarried in 2018 in a private ceremony at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama. Her wife, Abbott Jones, is an attorney and writer. Downs is the first former Miss America national titleholder to enter a same-sex marriage.