Pageant News Bureau - Shirley Jones

If Abraham Lincoln had stayed a country lawyer, America would have missed one of its greatest presidents. If Babe Ruth had stayed a pitcher, baseball would have missed one of its finest sluggers. And if Shirley Jones had stayed a beauty queen, the world of entertainment would have missed one of its brightest stars.

Actually, she didn't leave the pageant world totally by choice. As Miss Pittsburgh 1952, she was one disappointed teenager when she finished as first runner-up to Miss Pennsylvania. Ms. Jones had come tantalizingly close to being in the Miss America Pageant, but she had not quite made it.

When she looks back today, however, she realizes that it may have been a stroke of luck.

"If I had been Miss Pennsylvania, I would have been busy making pageant appearances," she told PNB recently. "I wouldn't have been where I was when I got my big break."

Instead of going to Miss America, Ms. Jones took a New York vacation with her family.

With Melissa Marcantel, Ms. Venus Atlanta
Photo by Amber Irene Dyer / PNB

Photo by Amber Irene Dyer / PNB

She was a big fan of Broadway musicals, and since pageant judges had liked her voice, she decided to use the trip to audition for the chorus in "South Pacific."

The rest of the story is legendary. When the pretty young Pennsylvanian sang the songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein, everybody stopped what they were doing. Rodgers was called. Hammerstein was called. And within a couple of years, Shirley Jones was a star.

Ms. Jones has done it all, superbly: Broadway, movies, television, even rock 'n' roll. She won an Oscar playing a hard-bitten prostitute, then won the hearts of millions playing a prim librarian. And thanks to her many family roles, American Movie Classics calls her the nation's "favorite mom."

She's also a longtime host for AMC, and on a recent promotional tour, she met with PNB staffers and complimented us on our work compiling a list of pageant movies. She is still a pageant fan, and has even judged the Miss America Pageant.

But what if things had turned out differently? What if Shirley Jones had won Miss Pennsylvania? What if she had won Miss America? With her beauty and talent, maybe she would still have become the star we treasure. But we can't rewrite history. And fortunately, there's no need.

Once a runner-up, always a legend