Actress, Child Entertainer and Miss America. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Brownd and Harry Dennison, who ran a traveling medicine show. Her father wanted her to be born in California, so her parents were heading west from Texas when her mother went into labor. The only help they could find was from a prison doctor, who delivered her in the prison infirmary. Her father's medicine show took her throughout the country as a child, where she sang, danced, and did trick riding and calf roping at circuses and carnivals. She and her mother later moved back to Texas after her father died. She graduated from Hale Center High School in Hale County, Texas, in 1940. She then moved to Tyler, Texas, and worked as a secretary. A free swimsuit from a local department store lured her into competing in the Miss Tyler pageant. She won the competition and advanced to the Miss East Texas pageant. After winning both the swimsuit and talent competitions, she went on to become Miss Texas in 1941 and Miss America in 1942. During World War II, she spent the majority of her time as Miss America touring military facilities, hospitals, and service camps and selling war bonds. She was one of the first Miss America winner that refuse to tour in a swimsuit. Her images in "Life" magazine won her the status of the troops' second most popular pinup girl, after Betty Grable, according to the military newspaper "Stars and Stripes." Following her reign as Miss America, she signed a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox, with a weekly salary of $100. She appeared in dozens of small roles in films and television episodes, both credited and uncredited, including in (1943) "The Song of Bernadette" as a teenage nun, "The Gang's All Here" as a dancer, (1944) "Ladies of Washington" as Frieda, "Something for the Boys" and "Winged Victory" as Dorothy Ross, (1945) "State Fair," (1946) "The Missing Lady" as Gilda Marsh, "The Jolson Story" as Ann Murray, (1950) "Beyond the Purple Hills" as Mollie Rayburn, "Dick Tracy" two television episodes she played Breathless Mahoney on both, "Prehistoric Women" as Nike, (1951) "Stars Over Hollywood" television episode she played a prison doctor, "Secrets of Beauty" she played a woman by her own name, "Pickup" as Irma, "A Millionaire for Christy" as nurse Jackson, "Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok" television episode, (1952) "Hollywood Opening Night" television episode as prison doctor, (1953) "The Adventures of Kit Carson" television episode as Jennie Bailey, "The Abbott and Costello Show" television episode as the ice cream customer, and in (1976) "Everybody Rides the Carousel" animation film with her voice. In the 1950s, she also appeared in a few episodes of Frank Sinatra and Ed Sullivan's television shows. When she was 21, she married comedian Phil Silvers. He opened doors in Hollywood for her, and they partied with stars such as Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and Gregory Peck. Five years later, they divorced. After appearing in films for a while, she moved behind the scenes of television projects before marrying CBS producer and director Russell Stoneham in 1954. They had two sons. In 1971, she was a judge in the Miss Texas pageant when Phyllis George won Miss Texas. A month before her death, she self-published her memoirs, "Finding My Little Red Hat." Her book is about courage: how to find it, how to lose it, and how to find it again. The title refers to a red felt hat she wore as a child for courage when traveling with her father's medicine show; her fears of starting a new school every week; her pageant life; and her acting career. She writes how she lost her little red hat during her twenty-three years of marriage and decided at the age of 57 that the best place to find it again was where she first found it, in her childhood.