One of my favourite sections of the site (even if I’ve never settled on the perfect name for it!), a look at all the Miss Oklahoma Teen USA titleholders who’ve gone on to compete at Miss USA or in other state pageants. It’s always inspiring to see where their journeys have taken them — whether they won a crown early on, competed once or twice and then hung up the heels or kept showing up year after year, showing persistence in their quest to walk the Miss USA stage.
Seven Miss Oklahoma USA titleholders have or will compete at Miss USA, with all but one representing their home state. Oklahoma’s Miss Teen USA 1986 Allison Brown competed at Miss USA 1987, the last Teen titleholder to automatically compete at Miss USA. Oklahoma’s former Teens have had a lot more success at Miss USA than other states, with four of six making the cut and three – Morgan Woolard (2006), Danika Christopherson (2020) and Julie Khoury (1985) making the top 5/6. Morgan, Danika and Taylor Gorton (2008) all placed at both Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. Oklahoma is one of the few states that has had one of their Teens from every decade win a Miss title.
While I am missing most records from the 1990s so cannot accurately state how many early titleholders returned, we do know that 10 out of 12 Oklahoma Teen USA titleholders from 2000-2011 returned to compete for the Miss title. In 2008 three former teens – Lindsey Camp (2001), Joy Cometti (2002) and Nikki Carver (2003) competed for what would be their final time, joined by Crystal Glidden (2005). Lindsey and Crystal made the semi-finals and Nikki and Joy made the top five. More recently we have seen all but one of the 2017-2021 Teens return to compete, with two winning titles.
Top 5/6
1
Julie Khoury (1985)
Non-finalist
2
Allison Brown (1986), Amanda Penix (1997)
1987
1
Allison Brown (1986)
1991
1
Julie Khoury (1985)
2000
1
Amanda Penix (1997)
1980s
1
Julie Khoury (1985)
1990s
1
Amanda Penix (1997)
Winners highlighted in italics. Stats may be inaccurate, especially for the 1980s & 1990s as I am reliant on newspaper archives which do not list all contestants.
1980s
1
Julie Khoury (1985)
1990s
2
Rachel Childers (1991), Amanda Penix (1997)
2000s
8
Kristin Vaughan (2000), Lindsay Camp (2001), Joy Cometti (2002), Nikki Carver (2003), Crystal Glidden (2005), Morgan Woolard (2006), Paige Hill (2007), Taylor Gorton (2008)
Oklahoma, Missouri
Winner
6
Julie Khoury (1985), Amanda Penix (1997), Morgan Woolard (2006), Taylor Gorton (2008), Zoe Ferraro (2018), Danika Christopherson (2020)
1st runner-up
2
Joy Cometti (2002), Paige Hill (2007)
2nd runner-up
4
Rachel Childers (1991), Nikki Carver (2003), Baylee Ogle (2017), Hunter Gorton (2021)
4th runner-up
1
Lindsay Camp (2001)
