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America’s Junior Miss Competition Established

America’s Junior Miss competition is established in Mobile with Fred Holder, manager of Bellingrath Gardens and Home, as its first president, and George Downing, President of Coca-Cola of Mobile and Executive Director of the Bellingrath-Morse Foundation, as its treasurer. In 2011, the competition was renamed Distinguished Young Women.

America's 1st Junior Miss, Phyllis Ann Whitenack of West Virginia, at Bellingrath in 1958
America’s first Junior Miss, Phyllis Ann Whitenack of West Virginia, at Bellingrath in 1958.