On Saturday I learned that Phyllis George has died. She took with her a piece of my childhood.
You see, we both grew up in the same sweet little town, Denton, Texas. While we lived there at the same time, I never knew her or even met her. She was my big brother’s age, and that made her totally unreachable for me.
But I do remember the pageant in September of 1970. In fact, I remember watching all Miss America pageants in the 60s. They were a huge deal! The highlight of September. I remember all those Toni perm commercials, too.
I remember how Life Magazine sold a fold-out spread so we could keep track of the contestants and pick a winner before Bert Parks announced one. Each girl had her own little oval. My sister and I studied and studied those beauties. We knew who would win!
By the time Phyllis George was a contestant, I was not a little girl anymore. We had moved to California and then to Houston, and I was a sophomore in high school. Miss America pageants were being attacked as cattle calls. It wasn’t cool anymore. Feminists were protesting outside the pageant.
But we were watching because she was Miss Texas and she was from Denton!
She was a beauty with Girl-Next-Door, freshly scrubbed innocence. She walked primly across the stage in her one-piece bathing suit which no one but our mothers and Miss America contestants wore anymore. Shoot, even Annette Funicello wore a two-piece! You know…Annette in the Beach Party movies with Frankie Avalon? But not Miss America contestants!
I just knew Miss South Carolina would win. She was blonde. Phyllis played the piano! The only thing worse than that was juggling. She played Raindrops Are Falling on My Head. She never quit smiling. She bobbed her head. Her hair never moved. She was doomed. Those other girls could sing.
The interview questions were about the girls’ interesting pasts. No world issues to solve. No tests of their intelligence. She talked about her sorority sisters at North Texas and the hermit crab she brought on the airplane from Texas for good luck and how no one sat beside her on the plane. She was charming.
She was the fifth girl of the five finalists. There sat Miss South Carolina. One by one girls were eliminated. She and Miss South Carolina were the last two! I was right! My contestant was going to win!
And Phyllis George won. Miss Texas from Denton was Miss America! My favorite part of that pageant was her walk down the runway. Just as she began, her crown fell off her head and rolled away. She calmly picked it up and began her Miss America walk. She never missed a beat. She smiled all the way, carrying her crown in her hand.
Maybe those judges knew what they were doing.
She went on to become the first woman sportscaster. The first woman doing pregame interviews for NFL Today. For a short time she was a news anchor on the CBS Morning News. When she married John Y. Brown, she helped him win the race for Governor in Kentucky and served as their beloved First Lady.
The last time I saw her was in a small role in the movie Meet the Parents. She was still beautiful.
What I never knew was that she had inherited a rare blood disorder from her mother. George lived ten years longer than her doctors expected. She was survived by a son, a daughter, and two very young grandchildren. I’m sure she was still a beauty.
Phyllis George. Beauty queen, sports broadcasting pioneer, First Lady of Kentucky, businesswoman, mother, and grandmother. And a little girl from Denton, Texas.
I am from Denton, Texas, and I will never let you or anybody else forget that. I am a small-town girl from a small town and a small-town family. If I hadn’t come from Denton, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now with this great job and my great husband and my beautiful children.”
Phyllis George, Denton native
My Sweet Blue Home 