Renee Garmon won the title of 1981 Miss Deaf Georgia when she was one of nine (9) "Southern Belle" contestants to compete in Macon, Georgia. She also received the Best Talent Award when she was dressed in a Hawaiian print sarong and lei, and performed a hula dance to music with both ASL and hula language of the hands in front of a backdrop of sunset through palm trees.
Sally Lowry was first runner up and Kelly Wilbourn was second runner up.
In 1982, Renee entered the Miss Deaf America Pageant (MDAP) in St. Louis, MO. She was one of 29 contestants to compete at MDAP in 1982.
During Renee's reign, she was called to serve jury duty but she was asked to be excused by the DeKalb Superior Court Clerk when they found out that she was deaf. Renee felt that she was being discriminated against because she was Deaf and her father offered to provide an interpreter and stood up to speak out to the Court Clerk to uphold her right to serve as juror. She was on the local news television, newspaper and even on CNN when she was interviewed about being rejected for serving as a juror.
Renee responded when the question was asked how she felt when she won the title of Miss Deaf Georgia and what was her experience at MDGP and MDAP:
"I was like "Wow" when I saw myself in the mirror that I had a sparkling tiara on my head after being done with the exciting pageant, applause from the audience, pictures flashing, interviews with the reporters, etc. It was like a real life dream actually happened to me since I had watched the Miss USA Pageant and Miss Universe Pageant on television when I was a very young girl. I was so glad that I had the opportunity to compete in the Miss Deaf Georgia Pageant and then the Miss Deaf America Pageant. Those pageants were a fabulous and challenging experience for me! Even though I did not win anything at MDAP, I did have a marvelous time and enjoyed meeting new people from the national and learning so many things about what the NAD provided for the Deaf community."
