Education
Cass Technical High School.
Cass Technical High School.
Gist, a 5 ft 11 3⁄4 in (182 cm) Detroit native, 20 years old at the time, eventually became first runner-up to Mona Grudt of Norway in the Mission Universe pageant of that same year. Gist is a graduate of Cass Technical High School in Detroit. At the time of her coronation, she was a junior marketing and management major at Northwood University at Midland, Michigan.
Gist first won the title of Mission Michigan United States of America and went on to win the Mission United States of America crown on March 2, 1990 in Wichita, Kansas. The 1990 pageant had representatives from Georgia (Brenda Leithleiter), Alaska (Karin Elizabeth Meyer), Kentucky (Tiffany Tenfelde), South Carolina (Gina Tolleson, who as 1st runner-up then went on to represent the country at the Mission World pageant, winning the title) and Karin Hartz of New Jersey making up with Gist the Top 6 finalists. She was also the first contestant from Michigan to win Mission United States of America, and broke the five-year streak of winners from Texas.
