Happy 45th Birthday Halle Berry OH!

Halle Berry was born in Cleveland Ohio, August 14, 1966 to Judith Hawkins and Jerome Berry. Her parents divorced when she was four and her mom, a psychiatric nurse went on to raise Halle and her sister alone. Halle and her sister Heidi attended a nearly all-white public school, and as a result was subjected to discrimination at an early age. Her early bouts with racism greatly influenced her desire to excel. Throughout high school, the determined teen participated in an array of extracurricular activities, holding positions of newspaper editor, class president, and head cheerleader. After high school she studied Broadcast Journalism at Cuyahoga Community College.

In the 1980s, she entered several beauty contests, winning Miss Teen All-American in 1985 and Miss Ohio USA in 1986.She was also the 1986 Miss USA first runner-up and the first African American to enter the Miss World pageant in which she finished sixth.

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