Susan Akin

In 1996, Akin married Brooks Lynch. She continued to struggle with addiction, ultimately leading to a suicide attempt in 1999.

In 1991, Akin appeared in a segment on Unsolved Mysteries to discuss the unexplained death of Crystal Spencer, an aspiring actress who died in the same apartment building where Akin and her husband, Jet Taylor, lived in 1988.

After crowning Kellye Cash as her successor, Akin moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue a career in acting, but soon fell into alcoholism. In the late 1980s, Akin became addicted to opiates after being injured in a car accident. She moved back to Mississippi and soon married Jetson "Jet" Taylor and gave birth to a daughter, Alexandria, in 1992. Taylor and Akin divorced in 1994.

Before the Miss America 1986 pageant, computer modeling successfully predicted that Akin would be named Miss America, her odds set at 7 to 1. During her pageant years, Akin participated in over 110 pageants.

Susan Akin (born August 12, 1964) is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Meridian, Mississippi who was Miss Mississippi 1985 and Miss America 1986.

Akin was born to Earl and Dorothy Akin on August 12, 1964. She was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority at the University of Mississippi.

She is the granddaughter of Bernard L. Akin, a conspirator in the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner of 1964. The Meridian Star reported Akin's response to her grandfather's involvement, "That's something that doesn't involve me. I wasn't even born and can't be involved in this. And the people who have taken it out of context thinking they can drag me down, cannot and they're not."