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CHRISTIAN
SINGLES MAGAZINE GRACED
AND REDEEMED AFTER
BEING NAMED
Miss Missouri, she won the 1990 Miss America pageant, earned her degree
as a doctor of veterinary medicine, and now works in television as co-host
of "Show Me St. Louis." Beauty queen, animal doctor, TV personality
-these are just a few of the hats Debbye Turner wears. Ask her to describe
herself, and the answer she enthusiastically gives is "graced and
redeemed." Turner is
a spirit-filled woman who greatly appreciates gifts from God, and her
gratitude frequently spills over in conversation. She credits much of
her spiritual outlook to her late mother, a single parent who raised two
daughters in Jonesboro, Ark. Turner was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, during
her father's tenure with the Army, and moved six times during her first
five years. She was only 6 when her parents divorced. My father
traveled around the world finishing his military career, and we remained
in Jonesboro," Turner explains. " A single parent household
is all I ever really knew." Though times
were not always easy, Turner says one parent raising children doesn't
automatically equal a dysfunctional family. "I certainly don't think
a single parent household is the best situation, " she says. "There
should be two loving parents -a mother and a father –but in some
homes that's not possible. Our mother knew the Lord. She loved Him and
lived her life according to biblical guidelines and faith. He gave her
grace, and she was able to be mother and father to us. It wasn't easy,
but she really was able to fill that gap by the grace of God. She raised
us in the fear and admonition of the Lord. She taught us not just that
He existed, but that He loved us and was intimately concerned with every
area of our lives. "She
would pull the Word out," Turner continues. "She would find
a passage that was relevant to a particular situation. We would read it,
apply it to our lives, and pray. The cool thing is God always performed.
He always provided for the need. Miracles were a regular part of my experience
growing up." One of the
most trying times in Turner's life came four years ago when her mother
died. "She was my best friend, my prayer partner, my role model,
my spiritual covering. It was tough to lose her," Turner admits.
"I realized recently that I haven't finished properly grieving. It
took a long time to get over the active pain of not having her in my life.
Emotionally, it was very tough. I was my mother's little girl and glad
to be. I never made a decision without her input. Anytime I had a crisis
in my life, I went to her first, and we prayed about it. When she died,
I realized how dependent I was on her, which, in some ways, was probably
not the best thing for me as an adult. I would go to her before I went
to God. She would always say, 'Let's pray,' and re-direct my focus. But
as a 28-year-old lifelong Christian, I needed to go to God first, and
I didn't even realize I wasn't. So, in her absence, I've grown up and
matured in a lot of wonderful ways that might not have happened had she
been here." Even while
grieving her mother's death, Turner says she also feels a special joy.
"I have a joy and excitement for her because I know she's rejoicing
with the angels, and she's seen the face of God, which is what she lived
her whole life for, " Turner says. "She's claimed the prize
Paul said we should press toward. " Family is
important to Turner, and even though her parents were divorced when she
was young, she has always been close to her father. She praises both parents
for maintaining a friendly, supportive relationship after the divorce.
"They were able to build a post-divorce friendship that allowed my
sister and I to be close to both of them," says Turner. Her sister
is now married to a pastor in Houston and has an infant son, Turner Caldwell,
who provides Debbye the opportunity to be an enthusiastically doting aunt. Though her
family had an abundance of love, financial resources were not always in
ample supply. When Turner decided to become a veterinarian, she used pageants
to finance her education. She entered her first competition as a junior
in high school. "It was a little pageant called the Jonesboro High
School Valentine Sweetheart pageant," recalls Turner. "I mainly
entered because each service organization in the school was required to
have a representative in the pageant. I was very involved in FBLA (Future
Business Leaders of America), so I got roped into representing them." To her surprise,
she won. " As it turned out, one of the judges directed a local preliminary
in the Miss America pageant," she says. "This [judge] asked
me to be in the Miss Jonesboro pageant. I wasn't the pageant type. Growing
up, I wasn't at all prissy or frilly. So I wasn't interested in doing
other pageants until she said that beauty pageants were the largest source
of scholarships for women in the world. I was growing up in a single parent,
lower middle class, African-American home. My family couldn't pay for
the education I wanted. I saw it as a way to reach my goals. That's how
I got started. It took seven tries in 11 years but I finally made it to
the Miss America pageant. " When she
advanced to the Miss Arkansas pageant, she was in the top 10 the first
year. In both the second and third years she entered the pageant, she
was first runner-up. "By this time I was in veterinary school at
the University of Missouri," she says. "The third failed try
at Miss Arkansas was devastating, " she says. "I thought I was
going to win. Everybody thought I was going to win because I was the returning
first runner-up --there was no place for me to go but up. When I didn't
win, my mother came up on stage with all my friends. My friends looked
like they were coming to view the dead. They had these long expressions
on their faces. But my mother had her usual big, bright smile and whispered
in my ear, 'There's always Missouri,' because I was a student in the state
of Missouri, making me eligible for their pageant system." Turner won
Miss Missouri her first time out, and during September of her senior year
in vet school, she was crowned Miss America. "I do a lot of motivational
speaking now, and I tell people I didn't win Miss America because I was
the prettiest or most talented girl there," she says. "I believe
it was God's design for my life. So He gave me the favor and the grace
that I needed. That's why I won." Turner values
her pageant experiences and refutes the notion that pageants are cutthroat
competitions with behind-the-scenes cat fighting. “I believe the
Lord blesses the Miss America pageant, because I have met more Christian
women in the Miss America system than in any other extracurricular activity,"
she says. " Many of the recent Miss Americas are not only Christians
but publicly professing Christians. In my year, a number of contestants
were believers, and we'd get together and pray before competitions. Thankfully,
pageants are quite the contrary of popular perception; there are a lot
of Christian women in there." After her
reign as Miss America and her graduation from vet school. Turner's first
job was as a spokesperson for Ralston Purina. "They recruited me
for launching a public education program," she says. ".They
asked me about doing a media tour. If there was one thing 1 knew how to
do, it was a media tour -I had just spent a whole year doing that very
thing. And I had decided to use the Miss America notoriety in a positive
way. I have three passions -my faith, children, and animals. I wanted
to do as much as I could in those areas so the opportunity with Ralston
Purina was perfect because it used my veterinary training and the recognition
I had gained in a positive way. Plus, it allowed me to continue the motivational
speaking I had started during my year as Miss America. " Turner worked
for Ralston Purina for two years. Then, after successfully launching their
new program, she decided to go into speaking full-time. During the
ensuing three years of speaking engagements, she also did a pet news segment
in St. Louis called " News 4: Your Pet with Dr. Debbye Turner."
That led to an opportunity to work with a show on PBS called "The
Gentle Doctor," which Turner now hosts. Turner is
also co-host of "Show Me St. Louis," a local television magazine
show. She was offered the job after the general manager of the St. Louis
NBC affiliate station saw a pilot she had done for another show and called
her. "I was tired of traveling to make a buck," she says. "
A week before I got the call, I said kind of casually to God that I was
ready to stop traveling. Within a week I got that phone call." She
soon found herself greeting St. Louis residents daily on the live 30-
minute program. Though she
works full-time at the station, Turner still travels as a motivational
speaker. When asked how she keeps her focus tight and her energy level
high, she shares some advice from a family friend, the Sparrow recording
artist Carman. "I asked Carman, 'How do you do it?' He said, 'I allot
a certain number of Sundays when I can be away, but every other Sunday
I come back to my home church service.' So that's what I always try to
do, and it makes a big difference. I realize even if I'm out ministering
at a church service, I'm giving. I'm pouring out. There's rarely an opportunity
for me to receive and be recharged unless I'm at my home church."
The nurturing
she gets from her church is important to Turner. So she is taking time
daily to seek God's will and direction. "I'm a plan person. I live
by lists and plans," she says, "which is good to an extent,
but we're supposed to live by faith. So I'm always saying 'Lord, I am
nothing. I can do nothing without you. I lean not on my own understanding,
but on yours because your thoughts are higher than mine and your ways
are higher than mine,' I have to remind myself of those Scriptures and
of my reliance on the Lord to be used for good. " Turner's
drive comes from the encouragement she received from her parents and her
faith. "I've always been taught that I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me," she says. "Impossibility has never
been a paradigm I've lived in. I know that where He has a purpose, He
has a plan and will provide the way." Turner manages
to exude confidence, determination, and enthusiasm without a trace of
self-absorption. When asked how she's remained humble in a glitzy profession,
she laughs. "I know where I came from, and I know who I am. I’m
not impressed with myself. I know what I look like when I wake up in the
morning, and I know how I struggle with my inadequacies. I'm a regular
person." She shares
many of the same dreams and goals as other young women, including the
desire to marry and raise a family. However, she admits her lifestyle
makes it difficult to meet people, much less begin relationships. "In
my Christmas letter last year I wrote. 'No boyfriend, no husband, no time."'
Turner says with a laugh. "But,
seriously, I believe God has a perfect pick for all of us," she says.
" And I also believe that he's supposed to come and find me. The
Bible says, 'He who finds a wife finds a good thing.' So he should be
looking for me. I don't need to look for him. I live my life, I do what
God has called me to do, and I have lots of friends. I'm not lacking social
outlets and recreation. I have lots of great friends. I'm not lonely,
and I know my fulfillment doesn't come from another human being, including
a man. So whenever the Lord sees fit to bring a husband along, that will
be fabulous. Until then, I'm having a wonderful time. I can go where I
want to go, spend my money the way I want to spend it, and I don't have
to ask anybody but the Lord. That really is a privilege. Singleness has
a lot of freedoms you simply don't get in marriage. "I don't
believe God wastes our time. If He has us in a place, He has us there
for a reason. If we are always longing for that next step in life, then
we aren't fulfilling His purpose in the present part of life." Until her
husband finds her, Turner will be content. She lives in St. Louis with
her 88-year-old grandmother and two cats -Snickers, a 12-year-old Burmese
mix she raised in her dorm room at vet school, and her mother's cat, Blessed,
an 11-year-old Siamese. Debbye Turner's life is good, and that's a blessing she doesn't take for granted. " Life is precious and fragile, " she says. "We assume that tomorrow is our right, but really it's a blessing and a miracle. We get so caught up in our own plans and responsibilities that we forget to be overwhelmingly grateful for each day we're given." |