Miss Tennessee USA and Teen USA Titleholder History

Tennessee has competed in every single Miss USA pageant except 1953. From the early 1960s until the end of the 1970s the title was styled “Miss Tennessee Universe”, a common practice at the time.  In the early years there was a strong connection to Memphis, with the majority titleholders coming from the city and its suburbs.  In recent years there has been a power shift to the Nashville area – Miss Tennessee USA 1992 Natalie Bray is the most recent Miss titleholder from Memphis.  There were no Miss Tennessee Teen USA titleholders from Memphis from 1991 until Ansley Ecker in 2020, and there have now been three in a row from the Memphis suburbs!

1960s-1970s

Check out the news clippings in the photo gallery section for a gorgeous photo of Pat Kerr Tigrett Miss Tennessee Universe 1964 and her 8 year old sister Jana Kerr who competed in and won the “Little Miss USA” pageant held alongside Miss USA that year. What makes this extra special? Jana herself won the Miss Tennessee Universe 1976 title and competed at Miss USA 1976! Pat became the franchisee for Tennessee in 1965 and was associated with the Miss USA pageant for 12 years.

1980s

The 1980s started with Diane Hunt, a distant cousin of Dolly Parton, and a pile of pancakes – check out the news clippings below! Miss Tennessee USA 1981 was Sharon Steakley, whose daughter Alexandra Harper would go on to win the Miss Tennessee USA title herself in 2018. Miss Tennessee USA 1985 Marty Browning won the Miss Congeniality award. Marty was born deaf and while able to lip read and communicate without sign language, took the opportunity to teach it to the other contestants. She earned a degree in deaf education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and taught hearing-impaired preschoolers in Chattanooga. Miss Tennessee USA 1989 Kimberly Payne is better known as Kimberly Greenwood, director of the Miss Tennessee USA pageants (as well as more recently, Georgia and Mississippi) for the last 30 years.

1990s

In 1990 Charita Moses became the first-ever African American Miss Tennessee USA, followed back-to-back by Angela Johnson in 1991. In 1995 Lynnette Cole won Miss Tennessee Teen USA and made the top 5 at Miss Teen USA; she’d become better known five years later as Miss USA 2000. The 1990s was a very successful period for Tennessee in both divisions with consecutive 2nd runner-up placements at Miss USA 1996 and 1997 and Morgan Tandy High placing first runner-up in 1999. Allison Alderson and Lynette were finalists at Miss Teen USA 1994 and 1995. Shelly Moore won Tennessee’s first Miss Teen USA title in 1997, followed by Bridgett Jordan finishing first runner-up to Vanessa Minnillo at Miss Teen USA 1998.  Miss Tennessee USA 1993 Cammy Gregory sadly passed away from a brain aneurysm in 2005, aged 35.

2000s

In 2000 Lynnette followed up her Teen success by becoming the first Tennessean to win Miss USA, and another former TN Teen USA Rachel Smith became the second in 2007. Tennessee was represented by three consecutive former Miss Tennessee’s from 2002-2004 with Beth Hood and Stephanie Culberson both placing fourth runner-up. Their Teen sister titleholders Alicia Selby (2003) and Tiffany Stroud (2004) also made the top five at Miss Teen USA.

Unsurprisingly for Tennessee there are musical connections with many former titleholders:

• Miss Tennessee USA 1972 Linda Thompson was the last girlfriend of Elvis Presley
• Miss Tennessee USA 1980 Diane Hunt is distant cousin of Dolly Parton
• Miss Tennessee USA 1989 Kimberly Greenwood (1989) is the wife of Lee Greenwood
• Miss Tennessee Teen USA 1993 Jamie Dudney is the daughter of country music singer Barbara Mandrell
• Miss Tennessee Teen USA 1994 & Miss Tennessee USA 2002 Allison Alderson married Jay DeMarcus.
• Miss Tennessee USA 1998 Amy Neely married The Derailers bassist Ed Adkins

I’m sure I’m missing more!