Episode 2625: Lencola Sullian Verseveldt ~ A First Miss America Runner Up, News Anchor, to International Corporate Executive @ Oil Company Shell plc talks Career Success!!

Royal Dutch Shell Oil, Miss America Pageant

Lencola Sullivan Verseveldt is a American news anchor, singer and former beauty queen who has competed in the Miss America pageant & the 1st Black Runner-Up ever in that Pageant. She was the first African-American to be crowned Miss Arkansas.

The oldest of five children born to Richard and Macie Sullivan. She attended the University of Central Arkansas where she received a degree in broadcasting.

Sullivan won the Miss Arkansas title in July 1980 and represented Arkansas in the Miss America 1981 pageant held later that year in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Sullivan and Doris Hayes (Washington) became the first African-American women to win preliminary talent awards in the pageant. She was also the first to place among the top five, where she was fourth runner-up.

Lencola became a news reporter on KARK-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas, and later moved to New York City. She has also worked for KTTV-TV in Austin, Texas, and sang with renown music artists Stevie Wonder, Kool & the Gang (for example on the album Unite) and Jazz Legend Lionel Hampton & his Orchestra, among many other things.

She married Roel P. Verseveldt, a native of the Netherlands, in Little Rock, Arkansas. She and her husband have since been involved in international business activities. Among other things, Sullivan also works at Royal Dutch Shell and teaches and guest-lectures at the University of Groningen, both in the area of diversity and inclusion. She currently lives in The Hague. ~


© 2025 Building Abundant Success!!

2025 All Rights Reserved

Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS

Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba

Amazon ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBAS