Many people come across the name “Tawny Little” while searching a genealogy database or browsing a relative’s family tree. What they find often surprises them — a Miss America title holder and longtime Los Angeles television personality sitting somewhere in their family connections.
This article covers who Tawny Little is, how her broadcast career unfolded, why her name has changed several times over the years, and how all of that affects the records genealogy researchers tend to find.
Who Tawny Little Is
Tawny Little was born Tawny Elaine Godin on September 15, 1956. She is an American beauty pageant winner and retired television personality. Those two facts — pageant winner and TV host — are the core of her public identity.
She won Miss New York 1975 and then took the national title as Miss America 1976. That win put her in front of a national audience and opened doors to a career in broadcasting that would last roughly two decades.
It is worth being clear: Tawny Little is a real, living person. She is not a historical figure. Any article or family tree entry about her should treat her accordingly — with accurate, verified information and appropriate respect for her privacy.
From Miss America to Los Angeles Television
After winning Miss America, Tawny moved into broadcast journalism and television hosting. She built a career in Los Angeles that is well-documented in media archives from the late 1970s through the 1990s.
She became a familiar face on Channel 7 Eyewitness News in Los Angeles, where she developed a strong local following. She also co-hosted programs including AM Los Angeles and Eye on L.A., both of which were popular regional shows at the time.
Her career path was actually quite common for Miss America winners of that era. The title brought media training, public speaking experience, and national name recognition — all of which translated naturally into broadcast work. For genealogy researchers, this career trajectory is useful because it generated a long paper trail: TV listings, newspaper profiles, station announcements, and broadcast archives that can serve as reliable timeline markers.
She is currently retired from television. There is no credible public information suggesting she is still active in broadcasting or pageant work.
Her Three Surnames and What They Mean for Records
This is the part that confuses most genealogy researchers — and it is completely understandable. Tawny Little has been known by three different surnames over the course of her public life. Here is a straightforward breakdown.
Tawny Godin (birth name, through early 1977)
She was born Tawny Godin and used that name through her pageant years. If you find a 1975 Miss New York article or 1976 Miss America coverage, the name you will see is Tawny Godin.
Tawny Little (1977 onward, and again from 1986)
On March 5, 1977, she married Miles Little and took his surname. This is when she became Tawny Little — the name most people associate with her today. Late-1970s and early-1980s TV listings in Los Angeles would reflect this name. After a later divorce (covered below), she returned to the surname Little and has used it since.
Tawny Schneider (July 1983 to April 1986)
On July 16, 1983, Tawny married actor John Schneider. During their marriage, she used the surname Schneider. If you come across entertainment coverage or records from the mid-1980s that mention “Tawny Schneider,” that is the same person. The marriage ended in divorce in April 1986, after which she returned to using Little.
So in a single genealogical search, a researcher might find three different names — Godin, Little, and Schneider — all referring to one woman across different decades. When adding her to a family tree, the cleanest approach is to list Tawny Elaine Godin as her primary name (her birth name) and note the married surnames as aliases or alternate names.
Her Connection to John Schneider
John Schneider is an American actor and country music singer. He is best known for playing Bo Duke on the television series The Dukes of Hazzard, which ran from 1979 to 1985 and made him a household name.
He and Tawny Little were married from July 16, 1983 to April 1986. The marriage is documented in public records and entertainment coverage from that period. It was a relatively brief chapter in both of their lives, and there is no need to read more into it than the public record supports.
This connection is often why researchers stumble onto Tawny Little in the first place. Someone building a family tree around John Schneider, or researching his public history, will naturally encounter Tawny as a former spouse. The reverse is also true — people researching Tawny Little may be surprised to find a recognizable TV actor in her record.
John Schneider has had a long career before and after this marriage. His public profile is well-established independently. The marriage is one documented connection between two public figures from the same era, nothing more.
Why Tawny Little Shows Up in Genealogy Databases
There are a few practical reasons her name surfaces in genealogy research, and they are worth understanding so you can interpret what you find accurately.
User-submitted family trees
Sites like MyHeritage allow users to upload their own family trees. If someone in the Godin or Little family added Tawny as a relative — even a distant one — her name can appear as a suggested match or tree connection for other users. These entries are only as reliable as the person who submitted them. Always cross-check against independent sources.
Record matches across decades
Genealogy databases pull from newspaper archives, public records, and broadcast directories. Tawny Little’s decades-long public career means she appears in many of these. A researcher tracing family history in Los Angeles in the 1980s might encounter her name in a TV station bio, a news column, or a social event listing.
Celebrity branches in ordinary trees
Sometimes a person building their family tree discovers that a distant cousin married into a well-known person’s family. This creates what looks like a celebrity connection — and technically is one, though usually quite distant. Tawny’s Miss America title and her marriage to John Schneider both make her the kind of figure who can appear in a tree as a notable name without implying close kinship.
Platforms like MyHeritage aggregate records from newspapers, census data, and historical directories, which is exactly why public figures from the 1970s through the 1990s tend to appear as nodes in user trees. For more on how genealogy tools work and how to get the most out of record searches, Young Business Mag covers research tools and digital strategies in a straightforward way.
Confirming the right person
If you find a “Tawny Little” in a tree or database and want to confirm it is the same person as Miss America 1976, look for these markers: birth year around 1956, a connection to Miss New York or Miss America pageants, and ties to Los Angeles television in the late 1970s through the 1990s. Those three details together make a reliable identification.
What the Public Record Does — and Does Not — Tell Us
The public record on Tawny Little is solid in a few specific areas: her pageant titles, her broadcast career in Los Angeles, and her marriages. Outside of those documented facts, detailed information about her extended family, private life, or current circumstances is not part of the public record.
If you are building a family tree and want to include her, stick to what can be verified. Her birth name, pageant history, television career, and documented marriages are all fair and appropriate to include. Avoid filling gaps with guesswork or relying solely on user-submitted tree entries without checking them against reliable sources like Wikipedia or newspaper archives.
She is a living person, and that matters. Public figures still have a reasonable expectation that information shared about them in public contexts — including genealogy databases — is accurate and responsibly handled.
A Useful Case Study in Tracking Name Changes
In many ways, Tawny Little’s record is a textbook example of how surname changes can fragment a person’s history across different documents. A name-change timeline that goes Godin → Little → Schneider → Little can be genuinely confusing without context.
Genealogists deal with this kind of complexity all the time — not just with celebrities, but with anyone who married, divorced, or used a professional name. The same approach applies in every case: establish the birth name, document each name change with a date and reason where possible, and note all aliases clearly in the profile.
Tawny Little’s story just happens to come with a Miss America crown and a recognizable co-star along the way, which makes it a little more memorable than most.
Quick Facts at a Glance
- Full birth name: Tawny Elaine Godin
- Born: September 15, 1956
- Pageant titles: Miss New York 1975, Miss America 1976
- First marriage: Miles
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