After serving as Miss America for 1958, Marilyn Van Derber returned to the University of Colorado and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors. After her graduation from CU, she was hired by AT&T as the spokeswoman for their television commercials on the “Bell Telephone Hour.” (more specifically for the Princess® telephone –“It’s little, it’s lovely, it lights”)

A Denver native, Van Derbur Atler has received numerous national awards national awards including Exceptional Achievement in Public Service, and the Distinguished Community Service Award from the Anti-Defamation League. She has been named “Outstanding Woman Speaker in America” and was inducte4d into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1996.