Deshauna Barber wins Miss USA 2016 crown (Photo : You Tube/Pageanthology 101 TV)
The Miss USA pageant was staged on June 5 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. For most people who were watching the live telecast of the competition, they predicted that Deshauna Barber will emerge as the grand winner of the glamorous beauty pageant. Indeed, Miss District of Columbia took home the crown that night.
The 26-year-old beauty simply did better than the rest, in almost all the segments of the competition. Most importantly, she impressed everyone during the Q&A portion which she handled with great ease and poise.
Pageant judge Joe Zee asked what she thinks about the Pentagon's decision to allow women in combat job posts in the military. Without batting an eyelash, Barber said that as a woman serving in the United States Army, she thinks that the government did an amazing job in opening every branch of the military to women.
"We are just as tough as men and it is important that we recognize that gender does not limit us in the United States Army," Washington Post quoted Barber as saying during the intense Q&A segment.
By now, everyone knows that Barber is the new Miss USA but very little is known about her background. In that case, here are some interesting things to know about her:
Firstly, since 1952, Barber is the third DC native to win the Miss USA title. She lived in Columbus, Georgia but the family had to move often because of her father's military assignments.
She grew up in a household where everyone is in the army. Barber's parents were military officers and her father was in service for 24 years before he retired. Her brother and sister are serving in the US army as well, ABC News has learned.
The newly crowned Miss USA herself entered that army at age 17 and has been in the Army Reserve since 2011. Currently, she is stationed as a logistics commander for the 988th Quartermaster Detachment Unit in Fort Meade, Maryland. On top of this, Barber is a business management graduate of Virginia State University and works for the US Department of Commerce as an IT analyst.
She was discovered by Leslie Morton, a former Miss Texas contestant, at a Target store where she worked during the summers of college freshman and sophomore years. Morton became Barber's mentor but she sadly passed away without seeing her mentee win the pageant.
Lastly, in an interview, Barber revealed that she also dreams of becoming an actress. "I think I would make an awesome actress," Barber told Cosmopolitan. If given a chance today, she prefers to be on "Game of Thrones."
Watch Barber trades her uniform for an evening gown to be crowned Miss USA 2016:
