Question: Which Orlando-born actress, celebrating a birthday this month, starred in TV’s Designing Women?
Answer: Delta Burke
Delta Burke was born to a single mother in 1956. Attending Colonial High School, she won the Miss Flame crown in a contest sponsored by the Orlando Fire Department, then became Miss State Flame. In her senior year, Burke became the youngest winner of the Miss Florida pageant in 1974.
She won a talent scholarship from the Miss America organization, which allowed her to study for two years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. In 1986, show-creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason cast Burke as Suzanne Sugarbaker, a former beauty queen, in the CBS sitcom Designing Women.
