Capturing the essence of a woman who exudes southern charm and bottling it for all to enjoy would be the epitome for a perfumer, and the fragrance of someone like Mary Ann Mobley would surely seize the attention of any passerby.

Mobley, who was the first Miss Mississippi to win the national title of Miss America, died Dec. 9, 2014 at the age of 77, but the brown-eyed brunette will always live in the hearts of Mississippians.

“Anyone who ever met Mary Ann would be in some ways covered in her effervescence and her personality. She was one-of-a-kind and absolutely the quintessential beautiful, graceful, southern woman,” former 1977 Miss Mississippi and family friend Mary Donnelly Haskell said.

On her second attempt, during the first Miss Mississippi Pageant in Vicksburg, Mobley was crowned Miss Mississippi in 1958.

Previously the state pageant had been held in Biloxi, but Vicksburg Mayor John Holland had jockeyed for the Red Carpet City to hold the Miss Mississippi Pageant after he was made aware that the Miss America Organization was looking for a new venue.

Vicksburg native Jack Ramsey was one of three men who were put in charge of organizing the event the first year it was held in Vicksburg, along with the Vicksburg-Warren County Junior Chamber of Commerce members.

Ramsey remembered some of his early days working with the Miss Mississippi Pageant and expounded on some of his memories, one of which was a conversation with Peg O’Neill, who served as the chaperone for Miss America. She had been in town for the inaugural event in the River City.

“She said, ‘Jack, I want to ask you, what is your opinion of what we’ve got?’ (referring to the contestants) and I said, well let me tell you what, there is this one gal that I went to school with, the little Mobley girl. She to me is what you would call the all-American girl. She is vivacious, and oh my Lord, she will steal your heart in a minute, and she has the talent. It’s just a cute little package,” Ramsey said.

The opportunity for O’Neill to get a glimpse of Mobley did not occur, Ramsey said, until the contestants were registering at the Hotel Vicksburg.

“We were at the mezzanine floor of the old Hotel Vicksburg and the contestants were walking up the stairs,” Ramsey said. “Peg grabbed me by the arm and said ‘Jack, Jack, Jack, look around right quick. Who is that at the very top of the stairs?’ I said that is who I was talking about. ‘You never mentioned her looks. That is the best looking cutest thing I have ever seen.’”

Ramsey laughed as he was thought back to the story because in conveying to O’Neill all of Mobley’s attributes he said he had not gotten around to letting her know she was also pretty.

Mobley represented the University of Mississippi in the 1958 Miss Mississippi Pageant and, after winning the state title, she traveled to Atlantic City, N.J. to compete for the national title.

While there, Mobley won a preliminary talent award with the same performance she had used during the competition phase of the Miss Mississippi Pageant.

The website pageantcenter.com referred to Mobley’s Miss America talent performance as “saucy,” which they describe as a mock strip-tease while singing an opera “Un bel Di” combined with the jazz song “There’ll be Some Changes Made.”

“Oh my Lord, she danced and did a little skit to the song ‘There’ll be Some Changes Made,’ and she built up to a very, very, very naughty thing. She took off her skirt,” Ramsey said. “It was the cutest thing and nobody ever questioned it because it went with the song.”

After winning the Miss America title, Mobley was awarded $10,000, adding to the $500 she was awarded as Miss Mississippi.

According to the 1959 Miss Mississippi Program book, Mobley was to travel some 150,000 miles during her reign, which included visiting every state as well as some foreign countries.

Mobley graduated from Brandon High School and attended Ole Miss, where she was a member of Chi Omega Sorority and Alpha Eta Honorary Sorority. She was also an Ole Miss Beauty and was the first Carrier Scholar at the school.

Following her reign as Miss America, Mobley spent time in New York and on the West Coast, where she perused a career in film and television.

In 1964, Mobley was invited back to Mississippi to participate in the Miss Mississippi Pageant, and in a personal note addressed to Wes Lominick, Jr., who was serving as the director for the pageant that year, Mobley wrote, “Wes, I would love to attend the Miss Mississippi Pageant, and I can’t thank you enough for inviting me.” She went on to tell him that fees for her appearance could be negotiated, but she would be unable to commit until she had finished filming a movie she was cast in.

“My only problem is this, and I’m being bluntly honest with you. I’m starting to work on my first movie June 24th,” Mobley wrote. “It’s a picture called ‘Girl Happy’ and I’m doing it with Elvis Presley.”

Mobley was unable to return to Mississippi for the pageant that year, but she and her husband, actor Gary Collins did return to Mississippi for subsequent performances with the Miss Mississippi Pageant, and they were also active with the Stars Over Mississippi, a biannual fundraiser held in Amory, created by Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Miss America Organization and Executive Producer of the Miss America Pageant telecasts, Sam Haskell.

The foundation helps provide financial assistance to the students of Mississippi, said Sam Haskell’s wife, Mary Donnelly Haskell.

Along with starring opposite Elvis Presley, Mobley also appeared in television series including “Diff’rent Strokes,” “Fantasy Island,” “Love Boat” and “Falcon Crest,” and she made hundreds of additional television guest appearances.

Together, Mobley and her husband had three children and two grandchildren.

“It was a great loss for the state,” Mary Donnelly Haskell said of Mobley’s death in December. “Mary Ann was one of Mississippi’s magnolias, and she will always hold a special place in Mississippi.”