Meredith Howard Harless

Meredith Howard Harless (September 6, 1909 – June 19, 1996) was a performer, Miss America contestant, writer, and broadcaster.

The daughter of Samuel J. and Florence Howard, Harless was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She had three siblings: William, Mary, and her twin sister, Virginia. She and Virginia tied for first place at the 1927 Miss Tulsa beauty pageant. Meredith was chosen by a coin toss to advance to the 1928 Miss America pageant, where she was a runner-up. Harless spent the next five years as a performer with the Ziegfeld Follies.

In 1935, Harless joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood, California, working both as a model and in the public relations department. From 1937 to 1941, Harless took a job with Crowell-Collier publishing in Washington, D.C. in their advertising department. In addition to her work in advertising, Harless wrote the syndicated columns Selective Tuning (under the name pen name Jean Abbey) and At Random on the Washington, D.C. social scene and women's fashion.

Harless joined the Hecht Broadcasting Company at the start of World War II, and broadcast the third inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. She also had a radio program called News and Personalities in the News. She married Arizona Congressman Richard F. Harless on November 28, 1948, and moved to Arizona, where she helped with his campaign for governor and worded at KTAR radio. In 1949 she was the producer and a commentator on the show A Look Behind the News for CBS Radio in Phoenix. She also appeared on various local radio and television programs, including Arizona Close-Ups for NBC and Arizona Caravan for ABC. In 1950, she resigned from her position as public relations director for KPHO-TV in Phoenix to help her husband with his campaign to be the Democratic nominee for governor.

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