Vecepia Towery

Vecepia Towery
Thirty six year old, Vecepia "Vee" Towery (born December 9, 1965 in Portland, Oregon) was one of sixteen competitors for the fourth edition Survivor. Vecepia was crowned the winner of Survivor: Marquesas in a 4-3 vote over twenty one year old, Neleh Dennis.

Marquesas
Vecepia started out on the Marramu Tribe alongside seven others. The Marramu Tribe would go to the first three tribal councils and vote out Peter Harkey, Patricia Jackson, and Hunter Ellis consecutively, thus leaving Marramu with only five members by Day 9.

On Day 10, the tribes were brought together for a reshuffling in which the castaways had to stand on a disk, and underneath each disk was buff that would contain either a yellow buff (for the Maraamu Buff) or a blue buff (for the Rotu Tribe). When Vecepia flipped with her disk she received a blue buff and was swapped to the Rotu Tribe, along with Maraamu tribemates, Sean Rector and Rob Mariano. From the beginning, Vecepia, Sean and Rob were on the outs of an already established Rotu Alliance of John Carroll, Zoe Zanidakis, Tammy Leitner and Robert DiCanio. However, Vecepia would be spared from eviction as Rotu only had to go to Tribal Council once, and in that time they would lose Gabriel Cade in a 7-1 decision. The New Maraamu would lose two members, leaving them down to three.

On Day 19, Rob Mariano and Kathy Vaverick-O'Brien brought the two tribes together and called the newly merged tribe Soliantu. Vecepia had began to play for herself from the merge on and in doing so, voted out former ally Rob Mariano on Day 21. Leaving the game with nine players.

It was at this stage of the game that became the turning point for Vecepia. Her ally, Sean felt he was on the cutting block when Tribal Council would come on Day 24. So they approached Kathy, who was also on the outs of the Rotu Alliance to form a counter alliance. But there was one catch: Castaways Paschal English and Neleh Dennis had to be convinced in order to have the majority. This wouldn't be accomplished until after the immunity challenge when Paschal and Neleh felt that the Rotu Alliance had been overconfident and had manipulated them into thinking there was no alliance. Because of this, Vecepia, Sean, Kathy, Paschal and Neleh created a voting bloc and targeted the alliance leader John. Voting him out in a 6-3 vote. It would later be discovered that Zoe had switched her vote for reasons unknown.

The new alliance would then systematically vote out Zoe, Tammy and Robert. Leaving the alliance of five to battle amongst each other. Kathy, Neleh and Paschal would then vote out Sean as he was the most vocal and threatening. Thus giving Vecepia a spot in the Final Four. Vecepia would go on to win the next immunity challenge, forcing a tie between Kathy and Neleh. Yet, because there was no concensus on who to vote out the remaining players left it up to chance and Paschal English ended up drawing the purple rock which would send him home.

Kathy, Neleh and Vecepia would then fight for the Final Immunity challenge. However, when Kathy lost her balance Vecepia seized the opportunity struck a deal with Neleh. She would give immunity to Neleh, if Neleh promised to take her to the Final Two. Neleh agreed, and Vecepia gave immunity to Neleh. Kathy would be voted out that night.

It was revealed on Day 39 that Vecepia had made the move to betray Kathy because she felt that Neleh had been riding coattails, and the jury members would see that as well and not appreciate that type of gameplay. That night the seven jury members comprised of John, Zoe, Tammy, Robert, Sean, Paschal and Kathy questioned Vecepia and Neleh as to why they deserved the million bucks. One particular comment came from Tammy who found both of them to be hypocritical as both were religious followers and would boast ethics, morals and integrity but would then lie and deceive to get ahead in the game.

When the final vote came in, Vecepia would receive votes from Sean, Tammy, Robert and John.

Trivia

 * The first African-American woman to win the game.
 * The third winner to have won by a 4-3 margin.
 * The first winner to come from a tribe that was outnumbered at the merge.
 * After her time in the Marquesas, she was married to her fiance Leander Robinson. Leander appeared on the show during a reward challenge.
 * Vecepia and her husband appeared on the Lifetime program A Baby Story following her Survivor stint.