Amanda Jones (Miss USA)

Pageant titleholder bio
photo=
name=Amanda Jones
title=Miss Illinois USA 1973
Miss USA 1973
nationalcompetition=Miss USA 1973 (winner)
Miss Universe 1973 (1st runner-up)
location= St. Charles, Illinois U.S.
birthname= Amanda Jones
eye color= Blue
hair color= Brown

Amanda Jones (born c. 1951) is a former beauty queen from St. Charles, Illinois who has held the Miss USA 1973 title.

Jones was crowned Miss Illinois USA 1973 and later represented Illinois in the Miss USA 1973 title which she won. She was the third of four delegates from Illinois to win this title.

Jones went on to the Miss Universe 1973 pageant in Athens, Greece where she placed 1st runner-up to Margarita Moran of the Philippines.

Jones is one of a group known as "reluctant beauty queens". She was an aspiring local commercial model, and only applied for the Miss Illinois USA pageant at the behest of her modelling agent. Despite her attempts to get out of this pageant Jones not only competed but won. She again was reluctant to compete in the Miss USA pageant which she won. Jones took on her responsibilities on her terms. Unlike previous titleholders, Jones was outspoken, supporting Women's Lib, declaring she was pro the Equal Rights Amendment and pro-choice on abortion. Her attitude and ideas won a lot of hearts and created a lot of enemies.

She appears in Studs Terkel's 1980 book "American Dreams: Lost & Found" (under a pseudonym) where she recalled "One of the big execs from General Motors asked me to do a speech in Washington, D. C., on the consumer and the energy crisis. It was the fiftieth anniversary of the National Management Association. The White House, for some reason, sent me some stuff on it. I read it over, it was nonsense. So I stood up and said: "The reason we have an energy crisis is because we are, industrially and personally, pigs." Oh, they weren't real pleased.... Several times during my year as what's-her-face I had seen the movie The Sting. There's a gesture the characters use which means the con is on: they rub their nose. In my last fleeting moments as Miss USA, as they were playing that silly farewell speech and I walked down the aisle and stood by the throne, I looked right into the camera and rubbed my fingers across my nose. The next day, the pageant people spent all their time telling people that I hadn't done it...."

External links

* [http://www.missusa.com Miss USA official website]
* [http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/9699/reluctant.html Article on Reluctant Beauty Queens]