Miss 2011

Archive for January, 2011

The annual Miss America pageant aired tonight and the winner has just been announced. Your 2011 Miss America is Miss Nebraska Teresa Scanlan – the youngest Miss America since the pageant implemented age limits in 1938. Rosemary LaPlanche which was runner-up in 1940 and easily won the crown in 1941 despite being one month too young to compete.

Teresa Scanlan is of Croatian ancestry. Her maternal grandparents, Frank and Nives Jelich, immigrated to the United States from Ilovik, Croatia.

She said age didn’t matter as the pageant celebrated its 90th birthday, though she thought her age might have made her an underdog. “We were on an even playing field,” she said. “From 17 to 24, that can be a huge age range. But with these girls, they are all at the highest level imaginable.”