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Miss America 1971, the 44th Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 12, 1970. The Women's Liberation Front demonstrated at the event and Miss Iowa 1970, Cheryl Browne, was the first African American contestant in the history of the Miss America pageant. Miss South Dakota 1970 Mary Harum (Mary Hart) and Miss New Jersey 1970 Hela Yungst would both become media personalities.

Miss Texas 1970, Phyllis George, was crowned Miss America 1971. George would later become a noted media personality, featured on the CBS football program The NFL Today, as well as the First Lady of Kentucky from 1979 to 1983.

In August 1971, George traveled to Vietnam with Miss Nevada 1970, Vicky Jo Todd, Miss New Jersey 1970, Hela Yungst, Miss Arizona 1970, Karen Shields, Miss Arkansas 1970, Donna Connelly, Miss Iowa 1970, Cheryl Browne, and Miss Texas 1970 (George's replacement after she became Miss America), Belinda Myrick. They were participating in a 22-day United Service Organizations tour for American troops there. The tour began in Saigon. Browne later commented that she thought "it was one of the last Miss America groups to go to Vietnam."

Results

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Placements

Order of announcements

Awards

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Preliminary awards

Other awards

Judges

• Hal David†
• Dr. Zelma George
• Bud Westmore†
• Robert F. Lewine
• Joan Crosby
• Edward Loeb
• Maria Gamarelli Fenton
• Norton Mockridge†
• Dr. W. Hugh Moomaw

Contestants

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State	Name	Hometown	Age	Talent	Placement	Award	Notes
Alabama	Suzanne Dennie	Birmingham	20	Popular Vocal, "Alfie"		Preliminary Talent Award
Alaska	Virginia Walker	Kotzebue	19	Original Poem, "My Wonderland"		Special Judges' Award Neat as a Pin Award	First Miss America contestant from the Arctic Circle
Arizona	Karen Shields	Tucson	19	Dance & Vocal Medley from My Fair Lady
Arkansas	Donna Connelly	Hope	19	Vocal Medley, "Who Will Buy" from Oliver! & "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing"	Top 10
California	Karin Kascher	Castro Valley	18	Violin, "Méditation"		Non-finalist Talent Award
Colorado	Sue Gehrman	Fort Collins	18	Musical Interpretation, "Just You Wait" from My Fair Lady
Connecticut	Cynthia Fowler	Cheshire	21	Classical Vocal, "The Jewel Song" from Faust
Delaware	Linda Sue Hitchens	Seaford	20	Vocal/Dance, "Give My Regards to Broadway"
Florida	Lisa Donovan	Sarasota	21	Vocal, "Feeling Good"	Top 10	Preliminary Talent Award	Singer on 1980s game show Face the Music
Georgia	Nancy Carr	Midland	22	Popular Vocal, "I Wish You Love"
Hawaii	Kathleen Puanani O'Sullivan	Kailua	18	Modern Dance, "Ritual Fire Dance"		Preliminary Lifestyle & Fitness Award
Idaho	Noralyn Olsen	Ovid	18	Classical Piano, "Etude Op. 10, No. 5"
Illinois	Lynn Alexander	Loami	18	Classical Vocal, "Vissi d'arte"
Indiana	Debbie May	Remington	21	Semi-classical Vocal, "The Impossible Dream"		Non-finalist Talent Award; Miss Congeniality
Iowa	Cheryl Browne	Decorah	20	Ballet, "Deep Purple"		Non-finalist Talent Award	First African American contestant to compete at Miss America Cheryl Adrienne Browne was a native of Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York who attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
Kansas	Linda Susan Edds	Manhattan	21	Popular Vocal, "The Windmills of Your Mind"
Kentucky	Cynthia Anne Bostick	Owensboro	18	Vocal, "Life is a One Way Street"			Appeared as Marcia Campbell on As the World Turns Cynthia Anne Bostick Georgeson died at age 70 on January 24, 2023 in Racine, Wisconsin.
Louisiana	Carol Almand	Haynesville	18	Vocal, "The Wedding"
Maine	Karen Johanna Johnson	Cumberland Foreside	20	Classical Vocal, "Quando me'n vo'"	2nd runner-up
Maryland	Sharon Anne Cannon	Salisbury	21	Piano, "Elephant Walk"
Massachusetts	Diana Dohrmann	Boston	21	Piano, "The Kid from Red Bank" by Count Basie
Michigan	Ginger Myers	Lincoln Park	21	Vocal, "Wicked Man"
Minnesota	Juliana Gabor	South St. Paul	20	Popular Vocal, "My Coloring Book"
Mississippi	Christine McClamroch	Columbus	21	Vocal Medley, "Cabaret", "Try to Remember", & "You'll Never Walk Alone"	3rd runner-up
Missouri	Marcia Mossbarger	Brookfield	22	Tap Dance, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"
Montana	Jane Opp	Billings	20	Piano, Le Cavalier Fantastique by Paul Ben-Haim
Nebraska	Debra May Sullivan	Omaha	19	Acrobatic Dance, "Fly Me to the Moon"
Nevada	Vicky Jo Todd	Sparks	20	Vocal/Guitar, "Time"		Non-finalist Talent Award
New Hampshire	Deborah Ann Merrill	Portsmouth	19	Vocal/Dance, "I Want to be Happy" & "Happiness Is"
New Jersey	Hela Yungst	Hillside	20	Dramatic Vocal, "Aldonza" from Man of La Mancha
New Mexico	Janis Jones	Raton	21	Soft Shoe Dance, "Golden Slippers"
New York	Katherine Karlsrud	Mamaroneck	18	Harp, "Whirlwind" by Carlos Salzedo	Top 10	Dr. David B. Allman Medical Scholarship	First Allman Scholarship recipient to graduate from Medical School
North Carolina	Cornelia Lerner	Asheville	18	Piano, "Revolutionary Étude" by Chopin		Non-finalist Talent Award
North Dakota	Nancy Tangen	Northwood	19	Classical Vocal, "Pace pace mio dio" from La forza del destino
Ohio	Grace Bird	Alliance	21	French Horn & Classical Vocal, "1st Concerto for French Horn" & "Ouvre ton Coeur" from Vasco da Gama by Georges Bizet
Oklahoma	Judy Adams	Cushing	20	Violin, "The Hot Canary" arranged by Florian ZaBach	Top 10	Preliminary Talent Award
Oregon	Cynthia Lynn Harrison	Portland	18	Vocal & Guitar, "Just Once"
Pennsylvania	Maggie Walker	Harrisburg	18	Gymnastic Ballet on Uneven Parallel Bars, "Contessa"	4th runner-up
Rhode Island	Teresa Bradley	East Greenwich	19	Folk Singing & Guitar, "Chelsea Morning"		Non-finalist Talent Award
South Carolina	Claudia Carmen Turner†	Spartanburg	19	Vocal, "Once Upon a Time"	1st runner-up	Preliminary Lifestyle & Fitness Award	Claudia Carmen Turner Wells Bauman, died at 69 on September 24, 2021 in South Carolina.
South Dakota	Mary Harum	Sioux Falls	19	Vocal Medley, "You've Made Me so Very Happy", "Something", & "Yesterday"	Top 10		Former co-host of Entertainment Tonight
Tennessee	Carol Ferrante	Memphis	21	Vocal
Texas	Phyllis George†	Denton	21	Piano Medley, "Promises, Promises" & "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"	Winner	Preliminary Lifestyle & Fitness Award	One of the first women sportscasters on network television as co-host of NFL Today on CBS from 1975 to 1977 and 1980 to 1983 Co-host of the 1989 & 1990 Miss America pageants with Gary Collins
Utah	Deborah Melba Dunn	Salt Lake City	20	Modern Dance, "Julia"
Vermont	Pati Papineau	Rutland	19	Classical Ballet, "The Stars and Stripes Forever"
Virginia	Jeannette Smith	Roanoke	19	Classical Piano, "Toccata" by Aram Khachaturian
Washington	Nancy Peterson	Moses Lake	19	Original Comedy Monologue, "Once Upon a Leaf"
West Virginia	Linda Dianne Barnett	Parkersburg	19	Modern Jazz Dance, "The Electric Indian"
Wisconsin	Linda Jane Johnson	Milwaukee	19	Piano, "Polonaise"
Wyoming	Jane Hutchings	Cheyenne	19	Piano, "Arabesque" by Claude Debussy

Photographs

• It Happened Here in New Jersey Archived 2017-04-29 at the Wayback Machine - Contains photograph of Miss Iowa Cheryl Browne and Miss Maryland Sharon Ann Cannon in the period before the Miss America Pageant 1971 on September 8, 1970.
• Photographs taken at the MISS AMERICA U.S.O. SHOW to Vietnam in 1971

References

1. ^ Musel, Robert (1970-08-26). "Television in Review". The Bryan Times p. 16 (United Press International). {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
2. There she is: From 1921 to 2014, see the Miss America pageant through the years:1971
3. "List of Miss Iowa Winners". Archived from the original on 2015-02-18. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
4. ^ Cauley, Paul (1971). "Photographs by Paul Cauley, 1971 Door Gunner, A Co 101st Avn (Text by Belinda Myrick-Barnett)". Paul Cauley.
5. ^ Davis, Shirley (2000-10-19). "History follows former Miss Iowa First black pageant winner recalls her crowning moment". Quad-City Times.
6. ^ Associated Press (1971-08-11). "People in News". Kentucky New Era p. 23. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)

• Miss America
• 1970 in the United States
• 1970 in New Jersey
• September 1970 events in the United States
• Events in Atlantic City, New Jersey