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Son's Crowning Creates Homecoming Dynasty

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Published: October 22, 2008

TAMPA - Seventeen years ago, Tiffani Conway raised eyebrows when she was voted homecoming queen by fellow students at Brandon High School.

She was the single mother of an 8-month-old boy.

Fast forward to Friday night.

That boy, DeAndre Bowers, was crowned homecoming king at his mom's alma mater.

"I was pretty happy because of my mom," Bowers said. "There's a little bit of history to it."

That history, he said, has everything to do with his mother being the only black candidate on the homecoming court in 1991, as well as the stigma of single parenthood.

"You tend to get stereotyped when you have a baby," said Bowers, who said he didn't know of his mother's past as a homecoming queen and unmarried mother until he was 13.

His mom was Brandon's second black homecoming queen, and "I was second black dude," he said Monday.

Conway attended Hillsborough Community College after high school, graduating from its law enforcement academy. She was a Bartow police officer for almost three years and has been a sales rep for a cable company for the past seven years. She left police work for better hours to care for Bowers and later two more sons, now 9 and 5.

Bowers runs track and plays defensive back on the Brandon team. He also is on a student advisory board for the Tampa Bay Bucs, maintains a B average and works at McDonald's.

He is hoping for a college scholarship. His first choice is Florida State University. He wants to study journalism and become a sportscaster.

Conway wasn't at Friday's homecoming dance at Brandon High when her son competed with six other young men to be named king. That was by design.

"I wanted that to be his moment," Conway said.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069.

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