By Warren Egebo
This past Sunday was the 60th Anniversary of the Miss University (of South Dakota) Scholarship Pageant (there was no pageant in 1980 or 2004). Last January at the Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas, I met Morgan Peck, the reigning Miss South Dakota and last year’s Miss USD. I am a 1972 graduate of USD and eighth graduate from my family (my wife, my two sisters, my brother-in-law, and several nieces and nephews have all attended USD over the years). Currently a board member for the Miss Philadelphia Pageant, I have been involved with pageants in the Miss America system for over 30 years, and that all began with Miss University.
It all started in the summer of 1957 when my sister, Sylvia, brought home from Vermillion the USD annual: THE COYOTE. I immediately noticed the “GLAMOUR” section that had full page head shots of Miss Vanity Fair (the yearbook queen), fraternity queens, Miss Dakota, Honorary Cadet Colonel, and the queen of queens on the USD campus – Miss University.
When my sister Hazel attended USD in the 60′s, she gave me a copy of the 1963 Miss University Pageant program that had Tom Brokaw as the emcee of the pageant. As many USD alums know his wife Meredith Auld won Miss South Dakota in 1959 as Miss Yankton. During those years when it was held annually at Slagle Auditorium each of the five sororities and the four girls’ dormitories fielded a candidate.
When I arrived at the USD campus in 1968 there were 20 or more candidates each year. Oh, how I remember Cecilee Streetman with her long chestnut hair winning the title in 1973 after singing the song “Killing Me Softly with Your Eyes”! She went on to be the first runner-up to Miss South Dakota that June.
The very first Miss University (1948), Carol Quinn, won Miss South Dakota in 1949. Then in 1950 Irene O’Connor not only won Miss University and Miss South Dakota, but in September in Atlantic City she became the first runner-up to
Miss America 1950. Other Miss University/USD titleholders who then captured the state crown and went on to the Miss America Pageant were 1957- Pat Miller, 1966 – Deborah Molitor , 1975 – Gina Campbell, 1995 – Kimberlee McKay and now Morgan Peck, Miss South Dakota 2009. Many a Miss South Dakota competed in the Miss University/USD pageant, but won the state crown with another title; some that come to mind are June Delbridge, Ann McKay, Sara Frankenstein, and Nikki Grandpre.
I congratulate the candidates for Miss USD this weekend. You are a part of a great tradition on the USD campus. And good luck to this year’s winner Valerie Menning as she competes for the state title in Hot Springs in June! Bring home another state crown to Vermillion!
Warren Egebo
Miss Philadelphia Pageant Committee member
Hegins, PA
USD grad 1972, BS in speech education
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