Miss Maryland from 1957, who had Miss USA title stripped, dies
By Liz F. Kay, The Baltimore Sun, October 10, 2010
Mary Leona Gage, the 1957 Miss Maryland pageant winner who was Miss USA for only a day before officials stripped her of her title because she was a married mother of two, has died in Los Angeles at 71.
A son, Robert Kaminer, told the Associated Press Saturday that Gage died of heart failure at a Sherman Oaks hospital Tuesday.
Gage was the only Marylander ever selected as Miss USA. And, like Vanessa Williams and Carrie Prejean decades later, she was not the last to become famous after a pageant scandal.
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The long, unhappy pageant of Mary Leona Gage
One glorious day in 1957, Miss Maryland, Leona Gage, was crowned Miss USA. Then her past caught up with her, and a troubled future began unfolding.
By John Woestendiek, Sun Reporter, April 10, 2005
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