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Once Miss North Carolina, always Miss North Carolina

Rebekah Revels after her Miss North Carolina 2002 win
Image provided by Rebekah Revels Lowry
Rebekah Revels after her Miss North Carolina 2002 win

Rebekah Revels won the Miss North Carolina pageant in 2002 and the chance to be Miss America. But she was forced to give up her crown after an ex-boyfriend told pageant officials he had compromising photos of Revels. A lawsuit followed and so did a lot of media coverage as Revels went to Miss America but in the end was not allowed to represent North Carolina in the competition.

More than two decades later, when her kids do an online search about their mom, the pageant controversy may still show up – and so does the work she's done since that time. Rebekah Revels is now Dr. Rebekah Revels Lowry.

Rebekah Revels Lowry with her kids Olivia and Oakley
Ashlyn Brown
Rebekah Revels Lowry with her kids Olivia and Oakley

Dr. Lowry has dedicated her career to education and is the Director of Alumni Affairs and Annual Giving at UNC-Pembroke. She talks with co-host Leoneda Inge about how she looks back at that moment in her life more than two decades ago, and how she still proudly calls herself Miss North Carolina 2002.

Guest
Dr. Rebekah Revels Lowry, former Miss North Carolina and current Director of Alumni Affairs and Annual Giving at UNC-Pembroke

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at WUNC as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.