Former Miss America Jo-Carroll Dennison dies at age 97

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The oldest surviving Miss America Jo-Carroll Dennison, who won the title in 1942, has passed away at age 97.

Dennison was a wartime pageant queen who stood apart from her peers for refusing to wear a swimsuit on stage during her year-long reign, nearly eight decades before the pageant would do away with the swimsuit contest altogether.

A former Miss Texas, Dennison went on to have a career in Hollywood, appearing in several films and TV series.

According to CNN, she died at her home in California last month, leaving behind two children and three grandchildren.

‘The Miss America Organization is saddened to hear of the passing of Miss America 1942, Jo-Carroll Dennison,’ the pageant wrote on Instagram. ‘We thank her for her year of service and will miss her dearly. ‘

Her friend Evan Mills told CNN that Dennison can ‘serve as a model for young women — and men — in a world where many are tempted to bend to social expectations rather than trusting and following their own moral compass.’

Dennison certainly lived an interesting life in the near century she spent on Earth.

She was born in a men’s state prison in Florence, Arizona in 1923 — though that certainly wasn’t the plan for her father, Harry Arthur Dennison, and mother, Elizabeth Dennison.

The couple was living in Texas at the time, but Dennison’s father wanted her to be born in California — so as they approached the due date, they began to drive. 

They didn’t quite make it, and with Elizabeth in labor, they relied on the only doctor they could find: a prison doctor. 

At two years old, Dennison joined her family’s traveling medicine show. Her parents put on entertaining performances to bring in customers to buy their elixirs, and the little girl was a draw as she sang and dance. 

‘I was who my father wanted me to be. I never wanted to be a performer really. Nature, reading and learning are my passion,’ she told the Idyllwild Town Crier.

When her father left at age seven, Dennison took those skills on the road to a circus and a carnival, where she also performed horse tricks. 

After graduating from high school, Dennison enrolled in business school to become a secretary.

But 18, her fate changed: a local banker in Tyler, Texas asked her to represent his bank in the Miss Tyler pageant.  

Dennison wrote in her autobiography, ‘Finding My Little Red Hat,’ that she had ‘sworn never to perform in public again,’ but she was promised a free swimsuit from a high-end department store and caved.

She won the pageant, and went on to take home the Miss East Texas and Miss Texas titles. 

In 1942 she took a three-day train to Atlantic City, New Jersey, home of the Miss America pageant, where she was up against 29 other young women. 

Nicknamed ‘the Texas tornado’ by local newspapers, the then-18-year-old won the swimsuit and talent categories before taking home the top prize.  

‘I think I won because I’m from Texas and sang “Deep in the Heart of Texas,”‘ she said. ‘I won all three categories in the pageant — the bathing suit, evening gown and talent sections. As far as I know, I’m still the only one that’s won all three.’

Though the pageant has grown a bit more well-rounded in recent years, at the time, Dennison’s win was reported on with a heavy focus on her looks. In fact, The Wilkes-Barre Record reported on her height and weight — 5’5″ and 118 lbs. — in an article about her win. 

Still, Dennison wasn’t all that interested in being a sex object — and despite winning the swimsuit category, she refused to parade around in a swimsuit at any point during her year-long rein. 

‘I was the first one who refused to wear a bathing suit because I didn’t think it was what I was about,’ she said. 

‘Back in 1942, the pageant was supposed to be about looks,’ she recently said at the Miss America 100th Anniversary Gala. ‘Yet I never thought I had won because of the way I looked, but rather because of the way I felt about myself. With this in mind, I flat out refused to wear my bathing suit on the stage after the pageant, beginning with my very first tour stop.

‘I’m so delighted that the Miss America organization has embraced this principle and focused on the totality of each candidate,’ she added. 

Dennison also spoke about her reign during an historic time, with World War II as a backdrop.

‘I was fortunate to win the pageant, particularly in the first year of World War II. As Miss America, I toured the country visiting military bases, defense plants, and boat yards,’ she said.

She also visited hospitals and service camps and sold war bonds.

‘The military men who came to see me as I performed on various stages, or danced with them, or just met, beamed and applauded and cheered,’ she recalled.

‘But I could tell they weren’t responding so enthusiastically simply to a pretty girl, or for that matter, to an individual person. Miss America was a tangible symbol of the country they enlisted to defend.’

She was, though, incredibly popular. According to Stars and Stripes, photos of her  that ran in Life magazine made her the G.I.s’ second most popular ‘pinup girl,’ following Betty Grable. 

When her reign ended, Dennison signed a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox, where she would earn a graduated salary beginning at $100 a week. 

She starred in several movies, including The Jolson Story and the wartime propaganda film Winged Victory. She also appeared in a few episodes of Dick Tracy. 

In 1945, at age 21, she married comedian Phil Silvers. Thought the pair divorced five years later, Silvers opened up doors for her in Hollywood. According to the New York Times, she became a regular at Gene Kelly’s Saturday night parties, which were also attended by the likes of Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Gregory Peck. 

‘There were two pianos at Gene and Betsy Kelly’s house and everyone would gather around and sing six-piece harmonies,’ she recalled. ‘But the biggest star that got everyone excited was Greta Garbo. When she came to town, even the stars were star struck. It was an exciting time in my life.’

Dennison said that her Miss America past had some assuming she was a ditz. In her autobiography, she recalled Groucho Marx telling her, ‘You’re almost articulate — for a bathing beauty.’

After some time on screen, she worked behind the scenes of television productions and went on to marry CBS producer and director Russell Stoneham in 1954.

The pair had two children, Peter and John, before separating in the ’70s and divorcing in 1981. 

Dennison has said that even with her Hollywood career, people are most impressed by her Miss America background. 

‘Whenever I’m introduced to a stranger, whoever they may be, nobody talks about the many adventures I’ve had. Invariably they say, “She is a former Miss American, you know.” And to this day, people are fascinated, and eagerly say, “Oh really?”

‘Looking back over my life, I saw that my many marvelous adventures and experiences would not have happened to me had I not won the Miss America pageant,’ she said. 

‘It was being Miss America that made the crucial change in the path of my life.’

She also said that she is ‘glad to have lived long enough to see how the women’s fight against inequality, sexual harassment, and abuse has finally come to the fore.’ 

‘And I hope future Miss Americas can help further the progress of healing the divisions in our country along racial lines, fight voter suppression, and motivate us all to respond to the spectre of climate change.’