Singer, actress, and fashion designer Vanessa Williams
turned 59 in March.

On July 23, 1984, 21-year-old Vanessa Williams gave up her
Miss America title, the first resignation in the pageant’s history,
after Penthouse magazine announces plans to publish nude
photos of the beauty queen in its September issue. Williams
originally made history on September 17, 1983, when she
became the first Black woman to win the Miss America crown.

Miss New Jersey, Suzette Charles (below), the first runner-up
and also African American, assumed Williams’ tiara for the two
months that remained of her reign. 

   

Suzette Charles

The idea for the Rose Festival in Portland, Oregon was presented to the
public in a speech by Mayor Harry Lane at the end of the Lewis and Clark
Centennial Exposition in 1905. The first festival occurred in 1907.

One of our most popular events during Rose Festival time in Portland is the
Starlight Parade the offers fun for everyone. From traditional marching bands
and flood-lit floats. This years pageant will be celebrating 40 years in the city
of Portland. 

Harry Lane (1855-1917)

Lane was elected mayor of Portland in 1905
and again in 1907. He appointed Lola G.
Baldwin as the first policewoman in the
nation.

Hose company #20 – 1st prize winner in the 1908 Rose Parade.

Electric Float, Portland Rose Festival in 1909.

The annual Miss America beauty pageant originated September 8, 1921 and
is run by the Miss America Organization, a not-for-profit corporation based in 
Linwood, New Jersey. It developed the "Miss America Scholarship Program, 
that awards educational scholarships to successful competitors between the
ages of 17 and 24. 

Margaret Gorman, of Washington, D.C., was the first
Miss America Pageant winner in 1921.

The current title-holder, Miss America 2015, is Miss New York 2014,
Kira Kazantsev. She is the third consecutive Miss America winner
from the state of New York.

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, TV’s first female superhero

Lynda Carter was born Linda Jean Córdova Carter in Phoenix, Arizona.

Carter was crowned Miss World America 1972 and was also the star of the
ABC/CBS TV series Wonder Woman from 1975 to 1979.

Miss America, 1959

Mary Ann Mobley (February 17, 1939 – December 9, 2014)

Mary Ann Mobley, the first Miss Mississippi crowned Miss America, died
at her home in Beverly Hills, California Tuesday after a battle with breast
cancer. Mobley appeared opposite Elvis Presley in two 1965 films, “Girl
Happy” and “Harum Scarum”, and appeared on dozens of popular TV
series from the 1960s to the ’90s, including "Perry Mason," "The Love
Boat," "Love, American Style," and "Different Strokes".