Edith Mae Patterson News Today

Let's read a bit of the fan mail Edith Mae Patterson received 100 years ago.

Let's read a bit of the fan mail Edith Mae Patterson received 100 years ago.

Time to check back in with Edith Mae Patterson, Pine Bluff schoolteacher who, as we discussed Oct. 25, was startled 100 years ago to find herself declared the most beautiful woman in 46 states by a contest she did not enter.

Time to check back in with Edith Mae Patterson, Pine Bluff schoolteacher who, as we discussed Oct. 25, was startled 100 years ago to find herself declared the most beautiful woman in 46 states by a contest she did not enter.

Look up the history of beauty pageants and you won't find Edith Mae Patterson listed as the very first Miss America. But according to a St. Louis newspaper and thousands of her admirers in 1920s and early '30s Arkansas, that she was.

Look up the history of beauty pageants and you won't find Edith Mae Patterson listed as the very first Miss America. But according to a St. Louis newspaper and thousands of her admirers in 1920s and early '30s Arkansas, that she was.