Miss South Carolina USA and Teen USA Titleholder History

South Carolina is one of the most successful states at Miss USA, and from 1980 until 2022 was the only state to lay claim to two Miss Universe winners.  It has been directed by RPM Productions since Janice McDonald, sister of co-director Paula Miles, held the 1979 title.  RPM’s first winner was Shawn Weatherly, who went on to win not only Miss USA, but Miss Universe!  South Carolina has not had a Miss USA winner since Lu Parker in 1994, but won their first Teen title in 1998 with Vanessa Minnillo – soon to shoot to fame on MTV, as the wife of Nick Lachey and most recently on NCIS: Hawaii – and their second with K Lee Graham in 2014.

In the last decade the South Carolina pageants have been dominated by the GC Pageants local pageant group who had their first win in 2013 with Tori Sizemore as “Miss Golden Corner Teen” and have directed at least one state winner every year since 2016.  Tori also won her Miss South Carolina USA title as Miss Golden Corner, and Marley Stokes and Kirby Elizabeth Self also held the same GC Pageants local titles for each of their Teen and Miss wins.

Take a look back at the winners’ state evening gown photos in the pageant photo galleries below – if you’re a miss contestant wearing red, black, white or champagne might bring you good luck and the Teen winners have almost exclusively worn white!

Eight Miss South Carolina Teen USA titleholders went on to win the Miss SC USA title, including a rare three-generation daisy chain of winners, where the Teen “sister” titleholder of a Miss winner who is herself a former Teen, goes on to win the Miss title hderself and then her own Teen sister title also wins the Miss title: Megan Pinckney (2010 Teen/2013 Miss), Tori Sizemore (2013 Teen/2018 Miss), Kirby Self (2018 Teen/2023 Miss).  Tori and Kirby both placed first runner-up at Miss Teen USA and Megan was 5RU at Miss USA.