Delta Ramona Leah Burke (Burke-Delta)

1956 - Born in Orlando, Florida, on the 30th of July.  

1973 - She became Miss Florida and won a scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

1974 - She began working her way up through the beauty pageant circuit, ascending from the Orlando Fire Department's "Miss Flame" contest, to that of Miss Florida, to the Miss America pageant - which she promptly lost by failing to even make the top ten.

1976 - She felt her innocence shatter during a devastating crisis.

1979 - She shot up to instant first billing, heavily typecast as a Scarlett O'Hara-like "southern belle" in the made

 for television feature Charleston.

1984 - Her first TV role came in the HBO show "1st and Ten," but her most famous part was as Suzanne Sugarbaker in the CBS sitcom "Designing Women."
 

1989 - Married to actor Gerald McRaney on the 28th of May.

1991 - The producers, concerned about Burke's inability to "maintain her sexy on-screen image," allegedly asked the actress to lose weight, but she refused; an ugly fight then erupted and ultimately led to Burke's termination at the end of the season.

2000 - She co-starred with David Alan Grier on the sitcom DAG; she had lost much of her excess weight for the role after being diagnosed with diabetes.

2005 - She appeared on Broadway in the play Steel Magnolias.