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Yolande Betbeze was an American singer and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss America 1951.
She captured her first crown in 1949 when she won Mobile's "Miss Torch" pageant. In 1951, Betbeze traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to compete in the Miss America pageant. Fox (then Betbeze) entered Miss Alabama for the scholarship opportunities the pageant presented. Having been educated in a convent school, she was reluctant to pose in a swimsuit and refused to do so after she won Miss America. That led the swim suit company, Catalina, to withdraw their sponsorship of the Miss America pageant and eventuall
Yolande Betbeze was an American singer and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss America 1951.
She captured her first crown in 1949 when she won Mobile's "Miss Torch" pageant. In 1951, Betbeze traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to compete in the Miss America pageant. Fox (then Betbeze) entered Miss Alabama for the scholarship opportunities the pageant presented. Having been educated in a convent school, she was reluctant to pose in a swimsuit and refused to do so after she won Miss America. That led the swim suit company, Catalina, to withdraw their sponsorship of the Miss America pageant and eventually brought about the creation of the rival Miss USA pageant.
The Miss America Organization has claimed that Fox's (then Betbeze's) actions were pivotal in directing pageant progress towards recognizing intellect, values, and leadership abilities, rather than focusing on beauty alone. From then on the Miss America pageant concentrated more on scholarship than beauty.
Fox has been active in the feminist movement. After her one-year reign as Miss America, Betbeze served as an ambassador to Paris, was active in the NAACP, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), and SANE (The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy), and studied philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Fox was an opera singer and did gain a reputation in that area. She continued to sing, appearing with the Mobile Opera Guild (now the Mobile Opera), and helped found an off-Broadway theater.
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Tags: Singer (1), Born 1928 (1), Miss America (1), Born 1929 (1), Opera Singer (1), Died Aged 87 (1), Civil Rights Activist (1), Born November 28 (1), Born In Alabama (1), Miss Torch (1), Miss Alabama (1), Miss America 1951 (1), Basque American (1), Died 2016 (1)
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