Cahaba Heights native wins Ms. Senior Universe

It's been a whirlwind week for Donna McGuffie, a native of Cahaba Heights who currently lives in Trussville.

McGuffie was crowned Ms. Senior Universe on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at the Saxe Theater in Las Vegas.

The pageant was the first of its kind, making McGuffie the first ever senior woman to wear a Ms. Universe crown.

McGuffie, 66, grew up in Cahaba Heights and attended the school through ninth grade, when it was a junior high, and then attended and graduated from Shades Valley High School.

Her mother and grandmother also grew up in Cahaba Heights.

“We come from a long line of Cahaba Heights folks,” she said.

The Ms. Senior Universe pageant took place over the course of a week, and included doing an interview on live television, performing a talent, executing poise in an evening gown and presenting a 35-second philosophy of life.

The 15 final participants were also special guests of the 2017 Miss Universe Pageant and were treated to a champagne six-course dinner at The Liberace Mansion after the interview portion of the competition.

“It was just incredible,” she said. “We just had the time of our life.”

McGuffie said she never considered herself as someone who would be a "pageant girl," and never even entered one until she competed and won Ms. Senior Alabama 2013.

"Pageants were the farthest thing from my mind,” she said, referencing her multiple-decade career in sales.

On top of her career McGuffie has two children, two step children and eight grandchildren, so really, she said, there wasn't a lot of time to consider such things.

But after going through some life changes in 2011 and 2012, she said her husband encouraged her to enter the 2013 pageant, and when she won that and then later won Ms. Senior USA in 2017, she realized how good it made her feel.

“So I did it. I stepped out of my comfort zone, as they say, and challenged myself to do it,” she said.

For her talent, McGuffie relies on her singing abilities — which in addition to helping her win the crown led to the production of a recording album in the early fall of 2017. She said she uses those skills outside of the pageant world to reach out to veterans, a cause she supports as her platform as well as in her personal life, as her father is a veteran as well.

“I stay busy,” she said, laughing. “I stay very busy.”

And showcasing the talents and lives of accomplished women like McGuffie is what the Ms. Senior Universe was founded on, its mission statement saying it is an effort to “honor and celebrate the lives of women over 60.”

McGuffie said she was wildly impressed by the women she met at the pageant. The oldest contestant, 94, was involved in the war effort during World War II, and there were retired doctors, dentists, opera singers as well as homemakers.

“They’re all very accomplished women in their own right,” McGuffie said.

She said that she hopes that the pageant will grow and come to have the same support and recognition as the younger pageants.

“For me, this is going to be a platform to encourage other women that are senior women to not be satisfied with sitting in their rocking chair,” she said. “Get out, and live your life!”

McGuffie said she is honored and humbled to have been named the first Ms. Senior Universe, because “that just doesn’t happen” to five-foot ladies from Alabama.

But, she added, she wants her friends and family at home to know that the experience doesn’t change who she is.

“I’m still just me from Cahaba Heights,” she said.

For more information about the Ms. Senior Universe and Ms. Senior USA pageants, and for access to samples of McGuffies singing talent, visit mssenioruniverse.com.