Yolande Fox Biography

Yolande Betbeze Fox (born 1929 in Mobile, Alabama) was Miss America in 1951.

Early Life

Yolande Betbeze was born in 1929 to William, a butcher, and Ethel Betbeze of Mobile. Betbeze was raised in a strict Catholic family with Basque origins and was educated in a convent school.

Career

She captured her first crown in 1949 when she won Mobile's "Miss Torch" pageant. In 1951, Betbeze traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to compete in the Miss America pageant. Fox (then Betbeze) entered Miss Alabama for the scholarship opportunities the pageant presented. Having been educated in a convent school, she was reluctant to pose in a swimsuit and refused to do so after she won Miss America. That led the swim suit company, Catalina, to withdraw their sponsorship of the Miss America pageant and eventually brought about the creation of the rival Miss USA pageant.

The Miss America Organization has claimed that Fox's (then Betbeze's) actions were pivotal in directing pageant progress towards recognizing intellect, values, and leadership abilities, rather than focusing on beauty alone. From then on the Miss America pageant concentrated more on scholarship than beauty.

Fox has been active in the feminist movement. After her one-year reign as Miss America, Betbeze served as an ambassador to Paris, was active in the NAACP, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), and SANE (The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy), and studied philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Fox was an opera singer and did gain a reputation in that area. She continued to sing, appearing with the Mobile Opera Guild (now the Mobile Opera), and helped found an off-Broadway theater.

Personal Life

She was occasionally seen "dating" baseballer Joe Dimaggio, although it was later revealed they were only close friends. She married Matthew Fox and they had one daughter. After her husband's death, she moved to Georgetown, Washington, D.C. where she was part of a fun-loving and elite crowd called "The Swing Set." She had a relationship with Cherif Guellal until his death.