Vanessa Williams' return to the Miss America Pageant

NEW YORK (WABC) -- She grew-up in Millwood in Westchester County and graduated from high school in Chappaqua, won the title of Miss New York, then went on to compete in Atlantic City for the Miss America crown. What happened next made Vanessa Williams the most famous, some would say infamous contestant in pageant history.

As Miss America 1984, Vanessa Williams made history twice: as the first African-American woman to earn the crown and the only winner ever to resign.

She was forced to step down after nude pictures of her surfaced during her reign.

"I was stupid, and I took some pictures, and apparently they're coming out," she explained then.

It's hard now to understand how big a deal this was in the age before the internet made over-exposure so common.

"It took every ounce of credibility that I had and wiped it out," Williams said.

The pressures she had faced already made it worse.

"Because there had been death threats against me," Williams said.

In an interview with Robin Roberts for Good Morning America, Williams noted her resignation was especially hard for her mother.

"There was an incredible amount of shame & humiliation she was confronted with because of what happened to me, and at that point I wanted to get on with my life," Williams said.

Her salvation came in the music business, where she scored a string of hits a few years after stepping down as Miss America.

Stardom on Broadway and in movies followed, then TV roles as "Ugly Betty's" boss and 1 of the "Desperate Housewives" before coming full circle back to the Miss America Pageant as head judge.

"They are inviting me back as an example of this is what can happen to you in your life, and there might be more surprises. We'll see," she said.

She survived one of the biggest scandals of the 1980's to prosper. Vanessa Williams has put what happened in perspective, owned her part in it, and as someone who covered her fall from grace, it's great to see that as far as the pageant is concerned all is now forgiven.

The Miss America Pageant airs live on Sunday on ABC 7 starting at 9 p.m.