Jo-Carroll Dennison, Miss America During World War II, Dies at 97

Jo-Carroll Dennison spent a rootless puerility successful a traveling medicine amusement successful the 1920s and ’30s with small wealth oregon ceremonial education. She hoped to go a secretary.

But retired of the bluish 1 time successful 1942, erstwhile she was 18 and walking down the thoroughfare successful Tyler, Texas, she was approached by a section banker who asked her to correspond his slope successful the town’s quality contest. She reluctantly agreed. She won and went connected to triumph a drawstring of contests that culminated with her being crowned Miss America. And her beingness took disconnected connected an unexpected trajectory.

With World War II raging, she visited subject bases connected the location front, sang and danced for the troops and sold warfare bonds. According to Stars and Stripes, the subject newspaper, photos of her successful Life mag made her the G.I.s’ 2nd astir fashionable “pinup girl,” aft Betty Grable.

And Hollywood came calling. Ms. Dennison landed tiny parts successful galore movies, notably successful the warfare propaganda movie “Winged Victory” (1944) and “The Jolson Story” (1946), astir the entertainer Al Jolson. She appeared connected tv with Frank Sinatra and Ed Sullivan and successful a fewer episodes of the bid “Dick Tracy” successful 1950.

But beingness wasn’t each glamour. She was sexually assaulted astatine the property of 12. She was 1 of the archetypal quality queens to garbage to deterioration a swimsuit during her Miss America reign, a play that she called “indentured labor.” And arsenic a starlet who was routinely objectified by almighty men, she was perpetually fending disconnected attempts to onshore her connected the proverbial casting couch. These experiences made her a feminist agelong earlier determination was a question to enactment her.

“I’m gladsome to person lived agelong capable to spot however women’s combat against inequality, intersexual harassment and maltreatment has yet travel to the fore,” she said successful a video she made successful September for this year’s observance of the 100th day of the Miss America pageant.

Ms. Dennison was 97 and the oldest erstwhile Miss America erstwhile she died connected Oct. 18 astatine her location successful Idyllwild, Calif., successful the San Jacinto Mountains westbound of Los Angeles. Her lad Peter Stoneham confirmed the death.

Over the past 45 years, portion she was successful and retired of movies and television, successful and retired of Hollywood and New York, and successful and retired of 2 marriages, Ms. Dennison wrote portions of her autobiography. She yet published it herself successful September. She called it “Finding My Little Red Hat” — because, arsenic an itinerant child, she had worn a reddish felt chapeau for courageousness erstwhile she went to a caller schoolhouse and faced yet different schoolroom of strangers.

“There was a definite Dickensian facet to her story,” her lad said, but her life, adjacent the hardscrabble aboriginal years, “was perfectly crammed with fantastic characters.”

Jo-Carroll Dennison was calved connected Dec. 16, 1923, successful a men’s authorities situation successful Arizona.

At the time, her parents owned and ran a traveling medicine amusement successful Texas. When her mother, Elizabeth (Brownd) Dennison, was astir to springiness birth, her father, Harry Arthur Dennison, decided helium wanted his kid calved successful California, which helium viewed arsenic much glamorous than Texas. So they started driving west. By Arizona, her parent was successful labor, and they stopped successful the tiny municipality of Florence. The lone assistance they could find was the situation doctor, who delivered Jo-Carroll successful the situation infirmary.

They carried connected to California successful what Ms. Dennison called their location car, a Model T Ford with the level furniture of a truck. She rapidly became portion of the medicine show, successful which her parents lured radical successful with amusement and past sought to merchantability them elixirs. As a toddler, Jo-Carroll sang, tap-danced and performed successful sketches.

When she was 7, her begetter left, which shattered her.

After Depression-era gigs with a circus and carnival — she rode instrumentality ponies and roped steers — she and her parent moved backmost to Texas, archetypal to the tiny municipality of Hale Center and past to Waco, wherever they signed connected with different medicine show. In her autobiography, Ms. Dennison wrote that erstwhile she was 12, the snake-oil salesman who ran the amusement sexually assaulted her.

She and her parent moved backmost to Hale Center, wherever Jo-Carroll graduated from precocious schoolhouse successful 1940. She aboriginal moved successful with an aunt successful Tyler, successful East Texas. She had enrolled successful concern schoolhouse to go a caput erstwhile the banker asked her to participate the quality contest. She had nary involvement successful parading earlier the nationalist again, but helium persisted — and offered her a escaped bathing suit.

She won the Miss Tyler, Miss East Texas and Miss Texas contests successful accelerated succession, past hopped a bid to Atlantic City to vie successful the biggest pageant of all.

With her ain orchestral statement of “Deep successful the Heart of Texas” and a high-spirited show successful a cowgirl outfit that had the assemblage clapping on arsenic she sang — the newspapers called her “the Texas tornado” — she took the pageant by storm. She swept the endowment and swimsuit contests, and connected the last nighttime she won the crown.

In summation to entertaining the troops, her reign arsenic Miss America called for her to look successful her swimsuit. She felt this would beryllium demeaning, she wrote, particularly successful immoderate of the low-rent venues wherever she was sent; she refused to bash it and adjacent chopped her circuit short, though this received small nationalist notice. The rebellious Yolande Betbeze Fox, Miss America 1951, got acold much attention for rejecting swimwear connected her circuit due to the fact that the pageant was sponsored by a bathing suit company, but Ms. Dennison preceded her by astir a decade.

In Hollywood, Ms. Dennison met Mr. Silvers connected the acceptable of “Something for the Boys” (1944). They joined successful 1945 and divorced successful 1950. (His astir celebrated role, arsenic Sergeant Bilko connected the tv bid “The Phil Silvers Show,” was yet to come.)

She joined the TV shaper Russell C. Stoneham successful 1954; they separated successful the precocious 1970s and aboriginal divorced.

In summation to her lad Peter, she is survived by different son, John Stoneham, and 3 grandchildren.

While Ms. Dennison loved definite aspects of being Miss America, she besides felt the rubric gave radical the content that she was an empty-headed enactment object. At parties, she wrote, it “was much a stigma than an accolade.” She inactive smarted years aboriginal erstwhile she recalled Groucho Marx telling her, “You’re astir articulate — for a bathing beauty.”

Hers was “a #MeToo communicative earlier #Me Too,” Evan Mills, who edited Ms. Dennison’s autobiography, said successful an interview, and she had to process it each successful a vacuum. “She was precise overmuch connected her own,” helium said.

She seemed to travel to presumption with her rubric aft she bought her upland retreat successful Idyllwild successful 1979 and became progressive successful the community, including moving for astir a twelve years for a hospice program.

When she had toured subject bases arsenic Miss America, she raised morale but knew that the soldiers were cheering her arsenic a symbol, not for thing she had done. “But erstwhile moving straight with hospice,” she wrote, “I felt that I was fulfilling that intent and utilizing the Miss America rubric successful a acold amended way.”