Chelsi Smith

Smith was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2017. Growing increasingly weak throughout 2018, she traveled to her mother's home in Mifflin, Pennsylvania, and she died there at the age of 45 on September 8, 2018.

In 2011, she was presented the Influential Multiracial Public Figure award.

With the support of Music World Entertainment/Sony, Smith co-wrote and recorded with producer Damon Elliott her first single, "Dom Da Da", part of the soundtrack for The Sweetest Thing, starring Cameron Diaz. In 2003, she acted in the independent film Playas Ball, where she co-starred with Allen Payne and Elise Neal. She also co-hosted Beyoncé Knowles' special Beyonce: Family and Friends Tour on pay-per-view and appeared on HBO in Saladin Patterson's short film One Flight Stand with Marc Blucas and Aisha Tyler. She was a judge at the 2006 Miss Teen USA pageant. and was a guest judge for the Miss Peru 2016 beauty pageant.

Smith went on to compete in the 1995 Miss USA pageant on February 10, 1995. During the final telecast, Smith obtained the highest average preliminary score and entering the semifinals in first place, becoming the fourth consecutive woman from her state to make the semifinals. She became a semifinalist, and advanced to the top six in first place. The next two rounds of competition: the Top 6 judges' questions and the Top 3 final question.

After becoming Miss USA, Smith traveled to Windhoek, Namibia, to compete in the 1995 Miss Universe pageant, broadcast live from Windhoek Country Club on May 12, 1995. She was again the highest placed contestant after the preliminary competition, which propelled her into the top ten. Once again, Smith was among the final 3 contestants and went on to win the title ahead of first runner-up Manpreet Brar of India, becoming the first Miss USA and sixth representative to capture the Miss Universe crown in 15 years./

Smith competed in her first major beauty contest in 1994, when she was a semifinalist in the Miss Texas USA pageant, as Miss South East Texas USA. The following year she competed again as Miss Galveston County USA, and won the title, as well as the Miss Congeniality award. Smith, a multiracial American, was the first titleholder of African-American heritage in the pageant's history.

Chelsi Mariam Pearl Smith (August 23, 1973 – September 8, 2018) was an American actress, singer, television host, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 1995 and Miss Universe 1995. Smith was the third Miss USA of African-American origin, after Carole Gist (1990) and Kenya Moore (1993), in addition to being the sixth American woman to win Miss Universe and the first since Shawn Weatherly was crowned Miss Universe 1980. She was the first, and only, African-American Miss Universe.