Bess Myerson, the first and only Jewish Miss America and, later, a power player in New York politics, was born on July 16, 1924. Myerson, a figure of glamour and, eventually, scandal, was a sign of changing times. Her coronation as Miss America came in September, 1945, only a few days after V.J. Day, the…
In the wake of Bess Myerson’s death and all the talk about her rise and fall, it’s worthwhile to remember a moment when her fate turned with ours, and her future really began. Immediately post World War II, many of our families were just beginning to understand the enormity of the Holocaust. They knew it…
Bess Myerson, a Bronx-born beauty whose selection as the first — and to date only — Jewish Miss America turned out to be more than a leggy, musically talented woman. Succumbing at 90 to dementia, she left her imprint on the Jewish community as an indefatigable supporter of Israel and never forgot her Yiddish roots. When…
The fact that Bess Myerson, whose death at age 90 on December 14 was recently announced, remains the only Jewish winner in the 90-plus year history of the Miss America pageant surely says more about that contest than it does about her. Social historians have compared Myerson’s victory in 1945 with the contemporaneous on-field triumphs…
(Reuters) — Bess Myerson, 90, the first Jewish Miss America and a frequent companion of the late New York Mayor Ed Koch who later fell from grace in a city scandal, has died after a long battle with dementia. The Bronx-born Myerson, who served as Koch’s commissioner of cultural affairs and often appeared with him holding…
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