Michael Winter, USA TODAY 8:44 p.m. EST January 5, 2015
Bess Myerson with her friend New York Mayor Edward Koch on May 14, 1985.(Photo: File photo by Carlos Rene Perez, AP)
Bess Myerson, the first and only Jewish Miss America, a TV personality in the 1950s and '60s and later a consumer advocate who changed how food was labeled, has died at age 90.
Myerson, who lived in seclusion for many years after a life in the public eye, died Dec. 14 at her home in Santa Monica, Calif. No cause of death was given.
As 21-year-old Miss New York City, the Bronx-born Myerson was crowned Miss America 1945 six days after Japan surrendered to end World War II. Her victory was a milestone for American Jews coping with Hitler's slaughter of their relatives and lingering anti-Semitism even among pageant officials and sponsors, several of which dropped their support after she won.
She had been pressured to adopt a name that sounded "less Jewish," but she refused, she once told an interviewer.
"You have to understand. I cannot change my name," she recalled telling the pageant director. "I live in a building with 250 Jewish families. If I should win, I want everybody to know that I'm the daughter of Louie and Bella Myerson."
Bess Myerson, of New York, holds the scepter after being crowned Miss America 1945 at the annual Miss America pageant in Atlantic City on Sept. 8, 1945.(Photo: AP file photo)
Myerson used her title to fight bigotry and discrimination. Long after her one-year reign, she spoke out on behalf of the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP and the Urban League.
"Bess Myerson will always be remembered for her remarkable life-long achievements and for her unwavering commitment to serving others by demanding equality for all," the Miss America organization said in a statement. "Through a life well lived, Miss America, Bess Myerson, left this world a better place!"
Myerson's statuesque beauty (she was 5-foot-10) was just the outer wrapping of a big brain, musical talent and sharp wit that made her a standout first in the new world of television (black-and-white) and later the changing standards of American life.
She played piano and flute, graduating from Hunter College with a degree in music and later doing master's studies at the famed Juilliard School. She knew how to get to Carnegie Hall; she was a guest piano soloist with the New York Philharmonic, according to the New York Times, which first reported her death.
From 1958 to 1967, she appeared on the celebrity quiz show I've Got a Secret, in which panelists tried to guess what was unusual, amazing, embarrassing or humorous about a contestant. She also leveraged her popularity, appearing in commercials and ads to pitch a variety of products.
In 1969, New York Mayor John Lindsay named her the city's first commissioner of Consumer Affairs, and during her four years Myerson pushed through such landmark consumer protections as "sell-by" dates and unit pricing.
She served as an adviser to presidents Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. She helped get friend Ed Koch elected mayor in 1977, and he named her the city's cultural commissioner in 1983. She lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1980.
Then, scandal tarnished Myerson.
In what was dubbed "the Bess Mess," Myerson was swept up in a federal conflict-of-interest investigation involving her married lover, a sewage contractor who did business with the city and was deep into a bitter divorce. She, her lover and a judge handling his divorce were indicted on bribery, conspiracy, obstruction and other charges.
While awaiting trial in 1988, she was arrested for shoplifting in a Pennsylvania department store. She pleaded guilty and was fined.
Months later, she and her co-defendants were all acquitted, but the damage to her reputation was done, and she vanished from the limelight.
Myerson was married three times, divorced twice. She is survived by her daughter, Barra Carol Grant Reilly.
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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/05/bess-myerson-obituary/21304789/
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