2006.27.3

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Description: Beauty contestants vying to be named Miss NPPA at the National Press Photographers Association national convention in 1956 held at the San Marcos.  Actor George Gobel and actress Mitzi Gaynor (standing front) were on hand to crown Joni Ross, Miss Chicago, the queen on April 4, 1956. Photographed by Kenneth Thomas

Contestents:  Georgina De Nillo (Miss Pittsburgh); Patricia Steppe (Miss Kansas City); Betty May (Miss Detroit); Linda Renrich (Miss Dallas/Fort Worth); Gay Cowie (Miss San Diego); Jeanne Ricks (Miss Illinois); Darlene Owen (Miss Long Beach, CA); Nan Bilodeau (Miss Culver City, CA); Jean Dempsey (Miss Spokane); Judy Schaefer (Miss Twin Cities, MN); Joyce Johnson (Miss Santa Monica, CA); Marie Hermann (Miss Los Angeles); Rosalie Plaine (Miss Ohio); Maryellen Smith (Miss Oklahoma); Sylvia Crocker (Miss Carolinas); Martha Mayer (Miss Scranton, PA); Ellen Terry (Miss Cleveland); Jacqueline Bourbonnais (Miss New England); Joni Ross (Miss Chicago); Flo Mae Spack (Miss St. Louis); Jo Ann Kelly (Miss Oregon); Barbara Hilgrenberg (Miss Tucson and Miss Arizona 1956); Donna Lea Dorn (Miss Denver); Beverly Jo Larson (Miss Wisconsin); Beverly Kaye Smith (Miss Seattle); Carinne de Pasquale (Miss New York)

Catalog number: 2006.27.3

Gift of Kenneth Thomas