Jacquelyn Jeanne Mayer (born August 20, 1942) is an American actress and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Ohio 1962 and Miss America 1963[1] and currently travels the United States as a motivational speaker, noted for her recovery from a near-fatal stroke suffered at age 28.
[2] Mayer graduated Sandusky High School in 1960, spending much of her senior year in Austria as an exchange student, and then attended Northwestern University, where a friend encouraged her to enter the Miss America contest for the scholarship money offered to the winner.
[9] She was rushed to the hospital and though surviving, spent the next seven years in rehabilitation needing to re-learn such simple tasks as the alphabet and basic motor functions.
[10][11] Thirty years later, having regained the ability to walk and speak, Mayer considers herself 90% recovered.
She has been a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association,[13] made educational films to raise stroke awareness, helped found the National Stroke Association,[14] and has appeared on Good Morning America and The Phil Donahue Show, and her story has been featured in magazines such as People and Family Circle.