Miss USA 1954
Date	July 24, 1954
Presenters	Bob Russell
Venue	Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach, California
Entrants	44
Placements	21
Winner	Miriam Stevenson  South Carolina
← 1953 1955 →

Miss USA 1954 was the 3rd Miss USA pageant, held on July 24, 1954 at Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach, California. Miriam Stevenson, won the competition and later became Miss Universe. She was crowned by outgoing titleholder Myrna Hansen of Illinois.

Placements

Delegates

State/City	Name	Hometown	Age	Placement	Special Awards	Notes
Arizona	Bonnie Johnson	Glendale
Arkansas	Jineane Marie Ford			Top 21
California	Sandra Constance	Los Angeles		Top 21
Colorado	Jeanie Carroll			Top 21
Connecticut	Andrea Todd	Hartford		Top 21
District of Columbia	Laura Farley	Washington, D.C.	21	Top 21
Florida	Rosemary Talucci
Front Royal, VA	Carol Hammarck
Illinois	Celeste Ravel	Chicago	23	4th Runner-up
Indiana	Cecilia Dennis	Milan		Top 21
Iowa	Ione Lucken	Le Mars		Top 21
Kansas	Sue Ravencroft
Kentucky	Nikki Horner
Louisiana	Sadie Vinson	New Orleans
Maryland	Barbara Eschenburg	Berlin		Top 21		Later disqualified for being underage
Massachusetts	Nan Cowan	Sterling
Memphis, TN	Janice Beverly Bowles			Top 21
Michigan	Gerri Hoffman
Minnesota	Dawn Joyce	Minneapolis		Top 21
Missouri	Alice Porritt			Top 21
Nebraska	Margie Winkhoff			Top 21
Nevada	Mary Jane Arnold	Las Vegas
New Hampshire	Myrna Louise Smith
New Jersey	Evelyn Orowitz	Collingswood	20	Top 21		Sister of actor Michael Landon
New York	Karin Hultman	New York City		1st Runner-up		Became 1st Runner-up after Miss Virginia USA was disqualifiedLater Miss World United States 1954 1st Runner-up at Miss World 1954
New York City, NY	Renee Roy	New York City		2nd Runner-up
North Carolina	Ann Pickett	Charlotte
North Dakota	Jane Hewitt
Ohio	Barbara Randa	Painesville	19	Top 21
Oregon	Charlotte Miller
Pennsylvania	Helen Vidovich	Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA	Elaine DuFeen					Later disqualified for the national pageant
Pleasure Beach, CT	Violet Fuchs
Rhode Island	Joyce Anne Sandberg	Warwick				Previously Miss Rhode Island 1953 Later served as the First Lady of Rhode Island from 1973 to 1977
South Carolina	Miriam Stevenson	Winnsboro	20	Winner		Miss Universe 1954 Previously Miss South Carolina 1953 Top 10 at Miss America 1954
South Dakota	Barbara Ann Brown
St. Louis, MO	Jo Ann Lynde
Tennessee	Barbara Holly	Nashville	21
Texas	Betty Lee	Houston		3rd Runner-up
Utah	Laverna Laub	Salt Lake City	22
Vermont	Georgia Laurise	New Haven, CT	24
Virginia	Ellen Whitehead	Chatham		1st Runner-up (disqualified)		Later disqualified due to being underage
Washington	Darlene Shride
West Virginia	Sandra Waggy
Wisconsin	Rita Delores Younger	Baraboo	21	Top 21
Wyoming	Faith Radenbaugh	Heart Mountain

Historical significance

• South Carolina wins competition for the first time. Also becoming in the 3rd state who does it for the first time. Incidentally, Stevenson went on to become the first woman from the USA to win the Miss Universe title in 1954.
• Virginia earns the 1st runner-up position for the first time. Later disqualified for being underage.
• New York earns the 1st runner-up position for the first time. It reaches the highest placement since Jackie Loughery won the inaugural Miss USA in 1952.
• New York City earns the 2nd runner-up position for the first time.
• Texas earns the 3rd runner-up position for the first time.
• Illinois earns the 4th runner-up position for the first time. It reaches the highest placement since Myrna Hansen won in the previous year.
• States that placed in semifinals the previous year were California, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.
• Minnesota and New York placed for the third consecutive year.
• California, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas made their second consecutive placement.
• Indiana, Missouri, Montana and New Jersey last placed in 1952.
• Arkansas placed for the first time.
• Connecticut placed for the first time.
• District of Columbia placed for the first time.
• Maryland placed for the first time.
• New York City placed for the first time.
• Virginia placed for the first time.
• Wisconsin placed for the first time.
• Memphis placed for the first time.
• Louisiana breaks an ongoing streak of placements since 1952.