Jo-Carroll Dennison, oldest ex-Miss America and longtime Idyllwild-area resident, dies
She was not on the list.
The 1942 Miss America Jo-Carroll Dennison, a longtime resident of the Idyllwild and Pine Cove, California areas, has died.
The Miss America Organization confirmed her death in an Oct. 20 Facebook post, saying she was crowned in 1942. She was 97, according to news reports. Her death was Oct. 18, said Evan Mills, a close friend.
Dennison died at her longtime home in the Idyllwild – Pine Cove area in the unincorporated San Jacinto Mountains in Riverside County, Mills said. She was the oldest living Miss America, he said.
In September, Dennison published a memoir, called “Finding My Little Red Hat.” The book tells stories from Dennison’s life, such as being born in a men’s prison in Arizona in 1923, performing with a traveling vaudeville troop and becoming a secretary — all before being crowned an American beauty queen at 18. She shares an “unvarnished view of a starlet’s life in Hollywood” in the 1940s, according to a news release about the book, and how her role as Miss America helped boost American troops’ morale during World War II.
Dennison was born on December 16, 1923, in Florence, Arizona, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Brownd) and Harry Arthur Dennison, who ran a travelling medicine show in Texas. She was born in the infirmary of a men's state prison in Arizona, delivered by the prison doctor as he was the only medical help her travelling parents could find. Her father had wanted her to be born in California so the couple had been driving west from Texas when her mother went into labour.
Her family later lived in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, California, and Tyler, Texas. She graduated from Hale Center High School in 1940, and was a stenographer in Tyler.
The Miss America Org tweeted We are saddened to hear of the passing of #MissAmerica 1942, Jo-Carroll Dennison. We thank her for her year of service and will miss her dearly. Before her passing, she released a wonderful book on her incredible life.
Dennison helped lead a scholarship program through the Miss America Organization. She married comedian Phil Silvers, according to the Internet Movie Database, and continued her acting career with 20th Century Fox and later worked in live television production. In the 1980s and ’90s, she worked at Hemet Hospice as a community relations director for over a decade. In a 2011 interview, she described it as “truly the most purposeful, rewarding work I ever did.”
In a video posted in September for the Miss America Organization pageant’s 100th anniversary, Dennison expressed her wishes for pageant queens to work towards “healing divisions” in the country.
“In looking back over my life, I saw that my many marvelous adventures and experiences would not have happened to me,” Dennison said in the video. “It was being Miss America that made the crucial change in the path of my life … I lift my glass to the future Miss Americas. May they continue to be a force for good.”
Dennison is survived by sons John Stoneham and Peter Stoneham and several grandchildren.
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1943 The Song of Bernadette Young Nun Uncredited
1943 The Gang's All Here Minor Role Uncredited
1944 Ladies of Washington Frieda Uncredited
1944 Something for the Boys Minor Role Uncredited
1944 Winged Victory Dorothy Ross
1945 State Fair Girl Uncredited
1946 The Missing Lady Gilda Marsh
1946 The Jolson Story Ann Murray
1950 Beyond the Purple Hills Mollie Rayburn
1950 Prehistoric Women Nika
1951 Secrets of Beauty Jo Carroll Dennison
1951 Pickup Irma
1951 A Millionaire for Christy Nurse Jackson Uncredited
1976 Everybody Rides the Carousel Stage 5 Voice, (final film role)
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