Miss Louisiana USA

Sara Brooks, Miss Louisiana USA 2010

Michelle Berthelot, Miss Louisiana USA 2008

Elizabeth McNulty, Miss Louisiana USA 2007

Ali Landry, Miss Louisiana USA 1996 & Miss USA 1996

The Miss Louisiana USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Louisiana in the Miss USA pageant.

Louisiana is one of the most successful states at Miss USA and is one of only seven states to have three or more Miss USA winners (in 1958, 1961, and 1996).

Four Miss Louisiana USA titleholders previously held the Miss Louisiana Teen USA title, including Ali Landry, who became the third woman from Louisiana to be crowned Miss USA.

Jennifer Dupont, Miss Louisiana USA 2000, is one of only seven women who have competed in the Miss Teen USA, Miss USA and Miss America pageants.

Louisiana's future success at Miss USA would be evident in the state's first contestant, Jeanne Vaughn Thompson, Miss Louisiana USA 1952 and 1953. She is the only woman to ever compete twice in the history of Miss USA. Thompson also holds the distinction of being the only woman to outright win a Miss USA state title twice, and until 1996, was the only two-time Miss USA state titleholder (a 44-year record). Shanna Lyn Searles became the second and only other double state titleholder, upon winning the Miss California USA title outright in 1996, after inheriting the state's 1992 title as a result of Shannon Marketic being crowned Miss USA 1992.

Thompson's overall pageant success—winning the Miss Louisiana state title and competing at Miss America in 1951, winning the first two Miss Louisiana USA state titles, and competing in the first and second Miss USA national pageants (becoming the first-ever 1st runner-up in 1952, and a semi-finalist and the Miss Congeniality winner in 1953) -- prompted Miss USA organizers to create a rule only allowing a person to compete for the national title once.

Louisiana contestants accomplished another feat first, winning both the first-ever Miss Congeniality and Miss Photogenic awards given to a Miss USA state delegate. Thompson was the winner of the Miss Congeniality award given to the first Miss USA state contestant in 1953.

The second Miss Congeniality award given also went to another contestant from Louisiana, Judy Fletcher in 1960. That year, during the era when both Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants were held at the same time, Fletcher tied with a Miss Universe contestant from Burma for the award.

Sharon Brown, who represented Louisiana in 1961, won the first Miss Photogenic award given to a Miss USA state delegate. She also won the Miss USA title, the first Miss Photogenic winner to obtain that feat.

Louisiana is one of only two states (California the other) to have won both the Miss USA title and the Miss Photogenic award in the same year on two separate occasions (Brown in 1961 and Landry in 1996).

Miss Louisiana USA is produced by RPM Productions, which also produces the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA state pageants for Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina. RPM Productions' headquarters is in Aiken, South Carolina.

The current titleholder is Bethany Trahan, a native of Lake Charles.

Results summary

Placements

• Winners: Eurlyne Howell (1958), Sharon Brown (1961), Ali Landry (1996)
• 1st runners-up: Jeanne Thompson (1952)
• 2nd runners-up: Lisa Lynn Moss (1981)
• 3rd runners-up: Pamela Forrest (1983), Sarie Joubert (1985), Elizabeth Primm (1989), Brittany Guidry (2014)
• 4th runners-up: Robyn Sanders (1976)
• Top 6: Shirelle Hebert (1994), Elizabeth Coxe (1995)
• Top 10: Debbie Delhomme (1998), Kristen Girault (2013)
• Top 11: Candice Bennatt (2015)
• Top 12: Bonnie Martin (1972), Storm Hensley (1973), Karen Hoff (1974), Christy Saylor (1992), Anne-Katherine Lene (2002)
• Top 15: Mary Lobianco (1959), Judy Fletcher (1960), Elizabeth McNulty (2007)
• Top 16: Erin Edmiston (2012)
• Top 20: Jeanne Thompson (1953)

Awards

• Miss Photogenic: Sharon Renee Brown (1961), Kathy Hebert (1968), Elizabeth Primm (1989), Ali Landry (1996)
• Miss Congeniality: Jeanne Vaughn Thompson (1953) and Judy Rebecca Fletcher (1960)
• Best Costume: 2nd Place: Elizabeth Primm (1989)

Winners

Color key

¹ Age at the time of the Miss USA pageant

References

1. ↑ "Kristen Girault Crowned Miss Louisiana USA 2013". Beauty Pageant News. October 28, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2012. 

External links

• Official website