Donna Axum Biography

Donna Axum (born 1942) was crowned Miss America in 1964.

Axum from El Dorado, Arkansas, now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the boards of the National Committee for the Performing Arts of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Fort Worth Symphony, the Van Cliburn Foundation, named for the pianist originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, and the Texas Christian University College of Fine Arts Board of Visitors.

Personal life

Axum first married Michael Alan Buckley and had one child, Lisa. She divorced Buckley and married Gus Franklin Mutscher who served as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1969 to 1972 and later as the Washington County judge. The pair divorced.

Career

Axum has held many titles since serving as Miss America: university instructor, author, television executive producer and TV hostess, professional speaker and civic leader. Her Miss America scholarship was used to complete her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in Speech/Drama, Television and Film. In 1988, Axum was named a Distinguished Alumnus of UA and serves on the National Development Council. She also served on the steering committee of a seven year capital campaign that raised more than $1.046 billion for the university.

Heavily involved in the arts on the local, state and national levels, Donna serves as Chair of the Executive Committee for the National Committee for the Performing Arts for the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. She also serves on the Executive Committees of the Fort Worth Symphony and the Van Cliburn Foundation and the Texas Christian University College of Fine Arts Board of Visitors. At the state level, Donna is Chair of the Texas Cultural Trust, the 501c3 arm of the Texas Commission on the Arts and a founder of Texas Women for the Arts.

Beliefs

Her faith is a stronghold of her life and is reflected in her service to the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as an Advisory Board Member where she works in the areas of development and women's ministries. She is also a member of the choir of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

Family

Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Council of the Dallas/Fort Worth World Affairs Council. She is married to J. Bryan Whitworth, a retired Executive Vice President of ConocoPhillips and now a counsel of Wachtell, Lipton, Rozen and Katz, a New York City law firm specializing in mergers and acquitions. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on March 1, 2009. Collectively, they have five children and ten grandchildren.

On July 2, 2007, her fourth grandson, Andrew Brooks Mutscher, was born.