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Miss Washington


The Miss Washington competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Washington in the Miss America pageant.

Washington first sent delegates to Miss America in 1926 and 1927 with Leona Fengler, Miss Seattle. She was sponsored by the Seattle Times (a practice common in the early days of the Miss America Pageant). She was pictured by the paper leaving in a bi-plane for her cross country flight to Atlantic City where she was voted 'Prettiest Girl in an Evening Gown'. Featured in the Seattle Museum of History and Industry in the exhibit 'Puttin on the Ritz' a 1920s display. In 1987, Leona was welcomed home and featured once again at the newly revived Miss Seattle Pageant that year.

The Depression and War years caused sporadic participation by Washington Contestants to the Miss America pageant, but the Miss Washington pageant was revived in 1948, with a $1000 scholarship being offered to the winner. In 1949 the Pageant was a 'financial flop' and the winner had to seek community donations to fund her appearance at Miss America. At the time the organization was so deeply in debt that the titleholder's tiara was nearly repossessed by the manufacturer.

Then as today the Miss America State Pageant programs are staffed, produced and sponsored by civic minded community volunteers and businesses who are mindful of promoting service to the community by the young ladies involved. The Primary function of the program is to provide scholarship dollars to further the contestants education, making the Miss America Local State and National the single largest Scholarship for young American Women who are American Citizens in the World. Unlike most other pageant programs there is no entry fee charged to the Contestant to compete and she must win a local Competition to get to the State level and then is eligible to go on to Miss America. The talent and trappings to compete from one level to the next are assisted when possible by the volunteer committees and sponsors, but the effort and dedication to the most of the opportunities available are indeed the responsibility of the participants. It is very often a fact that those women who never capture the top spot and move to the next levels of competition get the most personal growth from their interface with the ideas of making a difference in their community, and go on in life in pathways of great accomplishment. Simply by having had the opportunity to learn how to interview for the year of public service in the 'job' of Miss America.

In 1948, the Miss Washington pageant was held in Ephrata.

From 1961 to 1997 it was hosted by Vancouver, under a number of Executive Directors before being moved to the Tri-Cities under the Directorship of Chamber President Dorothy Schoeppach under whose direction the local programs again grew from 9 to 22. Two years later it moved to Tacoma under the Directorship of Joan Dehn and Mike Shinkle.


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