Sharlene Wells Hawkes was born 16 March 1964 in Asuncion, Paraguay as the fifth of seven children, having spent most of her childhood in South America. She is the daughter of former LDS General Authority Robert E. Wells. She was crowned the 1983 BYU Homecoming Queen and graduated magna cum laude at BYU in Communications in 1988. She was crowned the 1984 Miss Utah Valley, and the 1984 Miss Utah.
She became the first bilingual Miss America in 1985, having sung her talent performance in Spanish in front of 100 million viewers.
In 1987 she began a 15 year career at ESPN as a sports commentator, covering such world-class events as World Cup Soccer, World Cup Skiing, the Kentucky Derby, America's Cup, World Alpine Championships, the French Open and College Football.
Sharlene is married to Robert A. Hawkes, living in Salt Lake City with 3 daughters and a son.
Today Sharlene serves as Executive Vice President of Story Rock Electronic Publishing and President of its military division, Remember My Service producing historical records for each military personnel.
Sharlene released her CD's "When All Will Believe" in 1994 and "Song of the Morning Stars" in 1996 on which she sings, plays piano and plays harp.
