Country and pop superstar Faith Hill (1967-) was born Audrey Faith Perry on this day in Jackson, Mississippi. Adopted at age one, she sang in church, then headed for Nashville and the promise of fame at age 19.

"I have an incredible respect for the establishment of country music and what it's all about, and just country music, period. It molded and shaped who I am today," she once explained.

In 1993, the satin-voice beauty soared to the top with her first record, Take Me As I Am, which sold over two million copies. By 1999, her blockbuster fourth release Breathe, with the popular crossover hit This Kiss, debuted at #1 on the Billboard pop charts.

"Sometimes it's all overwhelming, but it's nothin' I'd give back," she said. "What measures success to me is whether you're connecting to the fans. I owe them a great deal of gratitude for sticking with me throughout my career and exposing themselves to something new."

In 1996, she wed her handsome touring partner Tim McGraw. That same year she established the Faith Hill Family Literacy Project to honor her father, who never learned to read and quit school to support his family. It was important to Faith to help create awareness about literacy.

"I hope that I can give an adult the inspiration to teach a child to read, or a child the resources he or she needs," she said. "Someday every American will be able to read."

A 2006 reader's poll in Country Weekly magazine named her country music's most beautiful woman, praising, "Faith embodies the ideal woman who really `has it all' — classic beauty, a superstar career, a great marriage to Tim McGraw and three lovely daughters."

Celebrate who you are.