Vecepia Towery, 1st Black to win $1 million on CBS' "Survivor"

Jet, June 3, 2002

Vecepia "Vee" Towery is the first Black female and newest member to join CBS' fourth installment of the "Survivor" millionaires' club.

Towery, a 36-year-old office manager from Portland, OR, beat out 15 other contestants including finalist Neleh Dennis, a 21-year-old psychology student from Layton, UT, after a 4-3 vote was made by a jury of seven former castaways on the season's final episode of "Survivor: Marquesas." It was the first time in the show's short history that two women emerged as the finalist.

For winning the competition, which was taped during 39 days in the South Pacific's Marquesas Islands, Towery takes home the $1 million grand prize.

With her fortune Towery plans to finish work on the home she and her new husband, Leander Robinson, have been renovating and invest the rest--but all that will come after giving "tithes and offerings to my Father," she says.

Last November, the 16 contestants were left with minimal supplies and a TV production crew on Nuku Hiva, part of Tahiti's Marquesas Island, about halfway between Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia. They began the adventure as two tribes of eight players each. One player was voted off every three days by the other contestants.

Towery said that the thing that made her most proud was being the first Black contestant to win the reality game show watched by 21 million viewers per week.

"It's important to be humble," she says. "But I had the feeling that God would lead me (to victory), and he did."