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Miss Missouri USA

Beauty pageant competition

Field	Value
name	Miss Missouri USA
formation	1952
type	Beauty pageant
headquarters	Shawnee
location	Shawnee
membership	Miss USA
language	English
key_people	John M. Vannatta
Jason Vannatta
Jennifer Vannatta-Fisher, State Pageant Director
website

Jason Vannatta Jennifer Vannatta-Fisher, State Pageant Director The ** Miss Missouri USA **competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state Missouri in the Miss USA pageant. It is directed by Vanbros and Associates, based in Lenexa, Kansas. In 1993, Missouri joined the Vanbros group of state pageants for the Miss USA and Teen USA system.

Missouri has had only one Miss USA, Shandi Finnessey, who placed as 1st runner-up to Jennifer Hawkins of Australia in the Miss Universe 2004 pageant. The most recent placement was Mikala McGhee in 2022, placing Top 16. Three Miss Missouri USAs have competed at Miss America, including Finnessey. Nine former Miss Teen USA delegates have also won the title one as former Miss Illinois Teen USA, equalling Indiana and Virginia for the most crossovers, although both Indiana and Missouri have had titleholders who competed in a different state at Miss Teen USA.

Shae Smith of Bolivar was crowned Miss Missouri USA 2025 on May 11, 2025 at The Mansion Theater in Branson. She represented Missouri at Miss USA 2025.

Gallery of titleholders

File:Larissa Meek cropped.jpg|Larissa Meek, Miss Missouri USA 2001 File:Shandi Finnessey.jpg|Shandi Finnessey, Miss Missouri USA and Miss USA 2004 File:AmberSeyer.jpg|Amber Seyer, Miss Missouri USA 2007 File:Candice Crawford parade.jpg|Candice Crawford, Miss Missouri USA 2008 File:Missmissouriusa.jpg|Katie Kearney, Miss Missouri USA 2012

Results summary

Placements

Miss USA's: Shandi Finnessey (2004)
2nd runners-up: Carolyn Carlew (1952), Sandra Lee Marlin (1963), Melanie Breedlove (1998)
3rd runners-up: Nancy Rebecca Rich (1971), Sandra Percival (1984), Dawn Fonseca (1987)
4th runner-up: Karen Hendrix (1967)
Top 5: Larissa Meek (2001)
Top 10/12: Dorothy Ann McElven (1974), Nancy LaRose (1975), Donna Hibbitts (1976), Amy Ruth Coverdale (1985), Shelly Lehman (1994), Britt Powell (1995), Amber Seyer (2007), Candice Crawford (2008), Ashley Strohmier (2010), Sydnee Stottlemyre (2016), Bayleigh Dayton (2017)
Top 15/16/20: Alice Jean Porritt (1954), Barbara Jayne Stell (1959), Marilyn Jean Stalcup (1960), Hope Driskill (2011), Megan Renee Kelly (2020), Mikala McGhee (2022), Shae Smith (2025)

Missouri holds a record of 27 placements at Miss USA.

Awards

Miss Congeniality: Bayleigh Dayton (2017)
Best State Costume: Shae Smith (2025)

Winners

;Color key

Declared as Winner
Ended as runner-up
Ended as one of the finalists or semifinalists

Year	Name	Hometown	Age	Local title	Placement at Miss USA	Special awards at Miss USA	Notes
2025	Shae Addison Smith	Bolivar	22	Miss Springfield	Top 20	Best State Costume	Triple crown winner
2024	Ashleigh Bedwell	Campbell	25	Miss Heartland
2023	Autumn Black	Kansas City	24	Miss Kansas City
2022	Mikala McGhee	St. Louis	28	Miss St. Louis	Top 16		Appeared on MTV reality show Made
2021	Joye Forrest	Spanish Lake	25	Miss Spanish Lake			Former professional cheerleader of Laker Girls
2020	Megan Renee Kelly	Seymour	22	Miss Springfield	Top 16
2019	Miriah Ludtke	St. Louis	24	Miss City of St. Louis
2018	Victoria "Tori" Kruse	Osage Beach	26	Miss Osage Beach
2017	Bayleigh Dayton	Lee's Summit	23	Miss Kansas City	Top 10	Miss Congeniality (tied with Miss Wyoming USA 2017 Mikaela Shaw)
2016	Sydnee Stottlemyre	Chesterfield	21	Miss Wildhorse Creeks	Top 10		Triple crown winner
2015	Rebecca Dunn	Columbia	23	Miss Columbia			Game Day Host for the Missouri Mavericks and Entertainment Host for Fox 22. Former anchor at Newsy.com.
2014	Erica Sturdefant	Springfield	23	Miss Creve Coeur
2013	Ellie Holtman	Montgomery City	20	Miss Montgomery
2012	Katie Kearney	St. Louis	23	Miss St. Louis
2011	Hope Driskill	Jefferson City	21	Miss Jefferson City	Top 16
2010	Ashley Strohmier	Jefferson City	21	Miss Cole County	Top 10		ABC 17 KMIZ Evening News Anchor
2009	Stacey Smith	Florissant	22	Miss Florissant
2008	Candice Crawford	Columbia	21		Top 10		Sister of actor Chace Crawford and wife of NFL quarterback Tony Romo.
2007	Amber Seyer	Oran	20		Top 10
2006	Kristi Capel	Springfield	22				Weather presenter at WBRE
2005	Andrea Ciliberti	Kansas City	21				Contestant on Beauty and the Geek, season 3
2004	Ashley Litton	Columbia	20		did not compete}}
Shandi Finnessey	Florissant	25	Miss Metro St. Louis	Miss USA 2004
2003	Tara Bollinger		23
2002	Melana Scantlin	Gladstone	24
2001	Larissa Meek	St. Louis	23		Top 5
2000	Denette Roderick
1999	Teri Bollinger
1998	Melanie Breedlove		22		2nd runner-up
1997	Amanda Jahn	St Joseph	25
1996	Aimee Rinehart		24
1995	Britt Powell	Kansas City			Semi-finalist
1994	Shelly Lehman				Semi-finalist
1993	Stephanie Nunn	Marshfield					Mother of Miss Missouri Teen USA 2016 Dallas Ezard
1992	Tonya Snodgrass						Mother of Miss Arkansas Teen USA 2016 Makenzie Sexton
1991	Tiffany Hazel
1990	Lori Suschnick	Liberal					Mother of Miss Missouri Teen USA 2018 Chloe Bartlett
1989	Rhonda Hoglan
1988	Alecia Workman
1987	Dawn Fonseca	Independence	22		3rd runner-up
1986	Barbara Webster	Kansas City
1985	Amy Coverdale	Columbia			Semi-finalist
1984	Sandra Percival	Sunrise Beach	20		3rd runner-up
1983	Robin Riley	Columbia
1982	Susan Heiman	Kansas City
1981	Karyn Smagacz	Fulton
1980	Kelly Laxson	Kansas City
1979	Virginia Dean
1978	Paula Taylor
1977	Connie Ast						Successor to crown; Competed at Miss USA 1977
Leigh Middleton				did not compete	Won the title of Miss Missouri USA 1977, but due to car accident, was unable to continue her reign or compete at Miss USA
1976	Donna Hibbitts				Semi-finalist
1975	Nancy LaRose	Marshall			Semi-finalist
1974	Dorothy McElven				Semi-finalist
1973	Camilla Crist
1972	Janet Potter
1971	Nancy Rich				3rd runner-up
1970	Suzette Grinham	Independence
1969	Sherry Hoffman
1968	Jan Barton	Macon
1967	Karen Hendrix				4th runner-up
1966	Martha Taylor
1965	Barbara Brooks
1964	Sandy Bawol						4th runner up in Miss World USA 1963
1963	Sandra Lee Marlin	Springfield			2nd runner-up
1962	Mikee Campbell
1961	Joan Roberts
1960	Marilyn Stalcup				Semi-finalist
1959	Barbara Stell				Semi-finalist
1958	Beverly Wright
1957	Judith Murback	Sikeston
1956	Carol Thrower
1955	Bennie Pritchard
1954	Alice Porritt				Semi-finalist
1953	Donna Gardner
1952	Carolyn Carlew	Sikeston	18		2nd runner-up

References

"2004 Mrs America".
(18 July 1963). "MISS U.S.A. AND 14 RUNNERS-UP". [[Iowa City Press-Citizen]].
(22 June 1952). "U.S. Beauty List". Independent.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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