Wendy Dascomb Biography

Wendy Dascomb (born c. 1949) is a pageant titleholder from Metairie, Louisiana, who held the Miss USA 1969 title.

In 1969 Dascomb, a resident of Danville, Virginia, and freshman at Stratford College, reluctantly competed in the Miss Piedmont pageant at the urging of college faculty. She won then advanced to the state level pageant and won the Miss Virginia USA title. In May she represented Virginia in the Miss USA 1969 pageant held in Miami, Florida, where she became the first woman from Virginia to win the MIss USA title. Dascomb later represented the United States in the Miss Universe pageant where she placed in the semi-finals.

During her reign Dascomb travelled to 57 cities making appearances as a pageant ambassador and model, including appearances in South America and Europe. As part of her prize package she received $5000 in cash and a variety of other prizes.

Dascomb was a liberal arts major studying special education at Stratford College when she won and said that she wanted to study special education. On giving up her crown Dascomb said that she was had missed school and her friends and was looking forward to returning to college and being with people who "share [her] views". Her farewell speech, delivered off the cuff, spoke of her disillusionment with the pageant and said she learned that beauty contests were "all wrapped up in selling - sell me, sell a swimsuit". She stated that "I was not the best Miss USA but I was the most honest".

In 1972, Dascomb contributed an article for Ms. Magazine, in which she wrote of her experience as Miss USA and elaborate further on her disllusionment over the pageant and her role as a titleholder.

Dascomb was succeeded by Deborah Shelton, also of Virginia, which made Virginia the first state in the pageant's history to have back-to-back winners.

Dascomb later moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to live with Walter Long, her boyfriend prior to the pageant. She and Long have a daughter, Millie Dascomb Long. She and second husband, Jay Bryan, have owned a farm in Chapel Hill since the mid-1990s.