The Miss South Carolina competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of South Carolina in the Miss America pageant. The pageant was first held in Myrtle Beach and moved to Greenville starting in 1958 and remained in that city until the 1990s. Spartanburg hosted the pageant in a few different venues until new leadership took over the organization and moved the pageant to Columbia, SC in 2011. The pageant was televised since the 1960s until the 1998 pageant. Televising was resumed with the 2000 pageant through 2006. The pageant returned to television in 2014.[1]
Two South Carolina women have become Miss America; Marian McKnight of Manning in 1957 and Kimberly Aiken of Columbia in 1994. Six more have been first runner-up at the national competition and another thirteen have placed in the Top Ten. The Miss South Carolina organization is the leading state pageant in the nation in scholarship money raised for young women- surpassing many much larger states.
The following is a visual summary of the past results of Miss South Carolina titleholders at the national Miss America pageants/competitions. The year in parentheses indicates the year of the national competition during which a placement and/or award was garnered, not the year attached to the contestant's state title.
1st runners-up: Claudia Turner (1971), Lavinia Cox (1977), Lisa Ann King (1984), Sherry Thrift (1986), Mary Gainey (1991), Ali Rogers (2013), Rachel Wyatt (2017)
2nd runners-up: Polly Suber (1955), Catherine Hinson (1978), Dawn Smith (1987)
Top 10: Joyce Perry (1952), Mary Griffin (1953), Miriam Stevenson (1954), Edith Sandra Browning (1961), Nancy Moore (1966), Cynthia Anthony (1976), Carrie Lee Davis (1993), Erika Grace Powell (2006), Suzi Roberts (2018)
Top 15: Mary Claudia Harvin (1927), LaBruce Sherill (1940), Kelly McCorkle (2003)
Top 16: Crystal Garrett (2008)
Top 20: Jeanna Raney (2002)
Awards
Preliminary awards
Preliminary Lifestyle and Fitness: Polly Suber (1955), Edith Sandra Browning (1961), Barbara Harris (1967), Claudia Turner (1971), Lavinia Cox (1977), Catherine Hinson (1978), Lisa Ann King (1984), Dawn Smith (1987), Nancy Humphries (1988), Carrie Lee Davis (1993), Ali Rogers (2013), Daja Dial (2016)
Preliminary Talent: LaBruce Sherill (1940), Nancy Moore (1966), Lisa Ann King (1984), Valarie (Valerie) Trapp (1996), Kimilee Bryant (1990), Erika Grace Powell (2006)
Non-finalist awards
Non-finalist Talent: Margaret Seible (1945), Gene Wilson (1959), Mary Diane Toole (1979), Julia Hill (1983), Amanda Spivey (1996), Janet Powers (1998), Heather Hudson (2001), Jessica Eddins (2004), Shelley Bryson Benthall (2007), Anna Perry (2009)
Sister was brutally murdered a year prior to her winning Miss South Carolina (events were later made into investigative documentary dramas)[61][62][63]
Won "Miss Pageant Rewind" on What Not to Wear against two fellow pageant contestants
Cherokee County is a county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 56,216. The county seat is Gaffney. The county was formed in 1897 from parts of York, Union, and Spartanburg counties. It was named for the Cherokee people who historically occupied this area prior to European encounter.
Gaffney is a city in and the seat of Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States, in the Upstate region of South Carolina. Gaffney is known as the "Peach Capital of South Carolina". The population was 12,539 at the 2010 census, with an estimated population of 12,609 in 2019. It is the principal city of the Gaffney, South Carolina, Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Cherokee County and which is further included in the greater Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Combined Statistical Area.
Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-most populous city in the state. The Greenville metropolitan area had 928,195 residents in 2020 and is the second-largest metro area in South Carolina. Greenville is the anchor city of Upstate South Carolina, an economic and cultural region with an estimated population of 1.59 million as of 2023.
Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport is near Greer, South Carolina, United States, midway between Greenville and Spartanburg, the major cities of the Upstate region. The airport is the third-busiest airport in South Carolina, after Charleston International Airport, and Myrtle Beach International Airport with over 2.56 million passengers in 2023.
The Upstate, historically known as the Upcountry, is a region of the U.S. state of South Carolina, comprising the northwesternmost area of the state. Although loosely defined among locals, the general definition includes the 10 counties of the commerce-rich I-85 corridor in the northwest corner of South Carolina. This definition coincided with the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area, as first defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2015. In 2023, the OMB issued its most updated definition of the CSA that coincides again with the 10-county region.
The Miss South Carolina USA competition, previously known as Miss South Carolina Universe, is the pageant that selects the representative for the state South Carolina in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. The pageant has been produced by Paula Miles, the sister of Miss South Carolina USA 1979, Janice McDonald, since 1980, and it has been directed by RPM Productions.
The Miss South Carolina Teen USA pageant is the competition that selects the representatives for the state of South Carolina in the Miss Teen USA pageant. The pageant has been directed by RPM Productions since its inception.
The Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina (EDUSC) is a diocese in the Episcopal Church.
Interstate 85 (I-85) in the U.S. state of South Carolina runs northeast–southwest through Upstate South Carolina. Connecting regionally with Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, it became the first Interstate Highway in South Carolina to have its originally planned mileage completed.
The Miss Missouri competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the U.S. state of Missouri in the Miss America pageant.
The Miss New York scholarship competition selects the representative for the state of New York in the Miss America scholarship competition.
Susan Audé is a retired American television news anchor in Columbia, South Carolina at WIS-TV. A child of military service parents she entered adulthood from Virginia to Erskine College in South Carolina in 1972 when she was seriously injured in a car accident in 1974. She spent six months in the hospital. Living the rest of her life in a wheelchair, she overcame depression and anger at the time and earned degrees and a career in television news broadcast, starting in 1978 until retirement in 2006, as well as working in theatre and public speaking. Raised a Methodist, she converted to the Baháʼí Faith in 1995 and she says it broadened her views of society and religion.
Kristie Lynn Greene is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Greenville, South Carolina who was named Miss South Carolina 1994.
Daja Breyon Davidson is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Spartanburg, South Carolina, who was crowned Miss South Carolina 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015 and was a Top 7 finalist. She is the third African American to be crowned Miss South Carolina.
Miss America 2017, the 90th Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Sunday, September 11, 2016. The event was broadcast by ABC in the United States, the first in the network's newest agreement to carry the pageant until 2019, with Dick Clark Productions producing the ceremony.
Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2008 was the third Miss America's Outstanding Teen pageant, held at the Linda Chapin Theater in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida on August 11, 2007.
The Miss South Carolina’s Teen competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the U.S. state of South Carolina in the Miss America's Teen pageant. Miss South Carolina’s Teen pageant is held the same week as Miss South Carolina, usually occurring during the last weekend in June at the Township Auditorium in Columbia, South Carolina.
The Miss South Carolina World competition is a beauty pageant that selects the representative for South Carolina in the Miss World America pageant.
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