Bess Myerson, the 1st Jewish Miss America, dies at 90
She was not on the list.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bess Myerson, the first Jewish Miss
America and a New York political force until a series of scandals dubbed the
"Bess Mess" forced her into obscurity, has died. She was 90.
Myerson died Dec. 14 at her home in Santa Monica,
California, according to the Los Angeles coroner's office and Department of
Public Health Vital Records Office. Her death was first reported by The New
York Times.
The Bronx-born Myerson was hailed as a Jewish, feminist
Jackie Robinson — a groundbreaker for her religion and sex — after parlaying
her stunning 1945 Miss America victory into national celebrity.
The 5-foot-10 dark-haired beauty, unlike her predecessors,
accentuated her intelligence. Myerson landed a series of television jobs, from
game show hostess to on-air reporter, before her appointment as New York City's
chief consumer watchdog in 1969.
The popular Myerson helped Ed Koch win the 1977 mayoral
race, deflecting rumors of the bachelor candidate's homosexuality — which he
neither confirmed nor denied — with her constant presence at his side.
"The immaculate deception," cynics called it after the couple shared
an election night victory kiss.
She made her own bid for office in 1980: an unsuccessful
Democratic primary run for U.S. Senate. Three years later, Koch appointed her
Cultural Affairs commissioner — an $83,000-a-year post as the city's liaison to
the arts.
"People like to read about me," she said in a 1987
interview. "They like to imagine themselves in my life."
But Myerson's carefully cultivated image crumbled in the
mid-1980s under a barrage of political and personal embarrassments that became
known as the Bess Mess.
A city background check exposed Myerson as an insanely
jealous woman who harassed an ex-boyfriend and his new lover. She repeatedly
invoked her right against self-incrimination in a 1986 corruption probe of a
subsequent boyfriend, Carl "Andy" Capasso, who was born the year
Myerson was crowned.
Capasso, a contractor with purported mob ties, pleaded
guilty to nine counts of tax evasion.
Myerson, Capasso and Judge Hortense Gabel were indicted in
October 1987 on a charge of conspiring to fix Capasso's divorce case.
Prosecutors said Gabel's daughter, Sukhreet, received a city job in return for
the judge's lowering of Capasso's alimony and child support payments.
Before that trial began the next year, Myerson was convicted
of shoplifting nail polish and earrings from a Pennsylvania store. A 1970
shoplifting conviction was also made public.
Although Myerson and her co-defendants were acquitted in the
divorce-fixing case, the damage was done. She had already resigned her Koch
administration post, and her public career was virtually over.
The Miss America Organization said in a statement Monday
that Myerson would be remembered for her unwavering commitment to equality.
"Bess used her Miss America title to fight
anti-Semitism and racial bigotry as she traveled around the country," the
organization said.
Bess Myerson was born July 16, 1924, the second daughter of
Russian immigrants. Raised in a one-bedroom Bronx apartment, she was beloved by
her housepainter father, Louis, and beleaguered by her strict mother, Bella.
By age 12, Myerson was taller and thinner than her
classmates — she once played Olive Oyl in a school production. Her natural
beauty soon emerged, and older sister Sylvia shepherded Myerson into the Miss
New York City pageant in 1945.
Myerson won, advancing to Atlantic City for the Miss America
pageant. Organizers urged her to change her name — they suggested "Betty
Merrick" — but Myerson refused.
Her title, captured as the horrors of the Holocaust were
coming to light, made Myerson a hero to her peers. Walking down the stage to
cries of "Mazel tov!" from Jews in the audience, Myerson later
recalled thinking, "This victory is theirs."
Not content with the stereotypical role of Miss America,
Myerson left an exploitive vaudeville revue and mounted a speaking tour for the
Anti-Defamation League.
"Miss America's brainy, too!" announced a Daily
News headline about the Hunter College graduate-turned-pageant winner.
Myerson remained socially aware through the years. She
received the ADL woman of the year award in 1965, the same year she began a
seven-year stint as chairwoman of the Bonds for Israel fund.
After surviving ovarian cancer in the early 1970s, she took
the lead in battling that disease. She was appointed to committees by
Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
Her first break came on TV game shows. Myerson appeared as
the "Lady in Mink" on "The Big Payoff" from 1951 to 1959
and as a panelist on "I've Got A Secret" from 1957 to 1968. She
served as commentator for the Miss America Pageant from 1964 to 1968.
She changed careers in 1969, when Mayor John V. Lindsay
named her the city's consumer affairs commissioner. She stayed until 1973.
She backed Koch in the hotly contested 1977 mayoral race,
holding hands with him as they marched in the Columbus Day parade. Koch media
adviser David Garth said it was Myerson who put his candidate over the top.
Her loyalty was repaid Feb. 23, 1983, when Koch appointed
her cultural affairs commissioner. It was a decision that did neither much
good, however.
Myerson's problems were exposed amid several other scandals
that kept Koch from winning a fourth term as mayor. But while Koch never left the
public eye, Myerson's drop was precipitous — occasional appearances at cancer
fundraisers or visits to friends' birthday parties.
Myerson, who was twice divorced, is survived by a daughter,
Barra Grant, from her first marriage.
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