Miss Louisiana USA

The Miss Louisiana USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Louisiana in the Miss USA pageant.

Louisiana is one of the most successful states at Miss USA and is one of only seven states to have three or more Miss USA winners (in 1958, 1961, and 1996).

Four Miss Louisiana USA titleholders previously held the Miss Louisiana Teen USA title, including Ali Landry, who became the third woman from Louisiana to be crowned Miss USA.

Jennifer Dupont, Miss Louisiana USA 2000, is one of only seven women who have competed in the Miss Teen USA, Miss USA and Miss America pageants.

Louisiana's future success at Miss USA would be evident in the state's first contestant, Jeanne Vaughn Thompson, Miss Louisiana USA 1952 and 1953. She is the only woman to ever compete twice in the history of Miss USA. Thompson also holds the distinction of being the only woman to outright win a Miss USA state title twice, and until 1996, was the only two-time Miss USA state titleholder (a 44-year record). Shanna Lyn Searles became the second and only other double state titleholder, upon winning the Miss California USA title outright in 1996, after inheriting the state's 1992 title as a result of Shannon Marketic being crowned Miss USA 1992.

Thompson's overall pageant success—winning the Miss Louisiana state title and competing at Miss America in 1951, winning the first two Miss Louisiana USA state titles, and competing in the first and second Miss USA national pageants (becoming the first-ever 1st runner-up in 1952, and a semi-finalist and the Miss Congeniality winner in 1953) -- prompted Miss USA organizers to create a rule only allowing a person to compete for the national title once.