by Wesley Harris
When Sharon Brown walked onto the Louisiana Tech campus in the fall of 1960, she was known simply as a freshman cheerleader from a tiny north Louisiana town. Within a year, she would become one of the most recognizable young women in America.
The journey from rural Waterproof, Louisiana to Ruston to the Miss USA crown remains one of the most remarkable—and least remembered—stories in Louisiana pageant history. Along the way, Brown collected an extraordinary series of titles, represented Louisiana on the international stage, found herself in the middle of one of Miss Universe’s most publicized backstage controversies, and became an ambassador for both her home state and Louisiana Tech.
When Sharon Brown walked into her first class on the Tech campus in September 1960, she could not have imagined that just a few months later, she would be wearing the Miss USA crown.
Born September 1, 1943, in tiny Waterproof, Brown moved with her family to Minden after high school. Athletic, outgoing, and photogenic, she enrolled in Tech as a speech major. She excelled as a member of Tech’s cheerleading squad. Several modern online biographies identify her as a Miss Louisiana Tech, but a review of records shows she was selected as Tech College of Engineering Queen and as a Tech Beauty but never competed for Miss Tech.
Brown’s ascent through pageantry happened almost overnight.
In 1960 while still in high school, she won the title of Miss Northeast Louisiana Stock Show, giving her experience in public appearances and competition. The following year she captured the Miss Louisiana crown while at Tech and advanced to the Miss USA Pageant in Miami Beach.
There, the 18-year-old Tech freshman defeated contestants from across the country to become Miss USA 1961.
Brown admitted she barely slept after winning the crown.
“I didn’t get much sleep last night,” she told The Shreveport Times. “My eyes just popped open to stay.”
Like many newspaper accounts of the era, coverage of Brown’s victory devoted space to describing her height, weight, and body measurements—standard beauty-pageant journalism in the 1960s that has since fallen out of vogue. Those same stories also emphasized her poise, athleticism, and friendly personality, qualities that made the Tech cheerleader a favorite of photographers and audiences.
As news of her victory spread across Louisiana, Governor Jimmie Davis announced he would welcome the new Miss USA when she returned home. The celebrations at Waterproof and Minden and at Tech, where all students were invited to welcome her back at a luncheon at the student center, had to wait. Brown had one more pageant.
Winning Miss USA instantly thrust Brown onto the international stage.
She prepared to represent the United States in the 1961 Miss Universe pageant, also held in Miami Beach immediately following the Miss USA pageant. The sudden fame came with a whirlwind of attention. Reporters wanting interviews and photographers snapping photos kept her busy.
Representatives of entertainment venues hounded her about possible contracts. Brown said her future remained uncertain, explaining she had not yet decided where the unexpected opportunity might lead. First, she had to compete once again.
Vying against contestants from around the world, Brown finished fourth runner-up to Miss Universe, one of the highest placements ever achieved by a Louisiana contestant.
She also received the Miss Photogenic Award, voted on by international photographers covering the Miss Universe pageant, the first Miss USA to earn the honor.
One disappointment accompanied the celebration. Brown said her parents had not traveled to Miami because she had convinced them there was little chance she would win anything.
“Really, it is my own fault that both Mother and Daddy missed seeing me win,” she informed reporters. “I told them it would be senseless for them to come down here.”
The Miss Universe pageant, however, became memorable for more than Brown’s top-five finish.
Questions surfaced over whether Miss Mississippi Marlene Britsch had been eligible to compete in the pageants because of questions surrounding her residency qualifications for the state title. Brown was questioned by reporters about the controversy, and Britsch came to believe Brown had helped spread the rumors.
Britsch later told reporters she sought out Brown in a dressing room to confront her.
“One word led to another,” Britsch said. “She swung at me. She missed, and I slapped her in the face.”
Brown firmly denied Britsch’s version of events.
“I have never swung at anyone,” Brown said. “She called me a liar while I was sitting in a chair, then slapped me in the face, and walked out.”
Wire service photographers later captured the two contestants publicly shaking hands, allegedly making up after the heated exchange backstage.
Despite the distraction, Brown maintained her composure and finished among the world’s top five contestants, although she admitted the incident affected her performance.
Brown’s past seemed like slow motion compared to the next twelve months.
Rather than returning immediately to Tech, Brown spent the next year traveling an estimated 70,000 miles, making appearances across the United States and overseas. She participated in March of Dimes campaigns, civic celebrations, television programs, and promotional events while serving as the USA’s official beauty queen.
Despite the hectic schedule, Brown remained refreshingly down to earth. She admitted enjoying shooting pool, mowing the lawn, babysitting, planting flowers, and even peeling off her nail polish. She joked that before becoming Miss USA she never drank coffee, but after months of appearances she “just funneled it down.”
Rumors spread that Brown intended to transfer to LSU but she squelched those, insisting Tech was her school and she would return after her reign as Miss USA ended.
But the national exposure opened doors beyond pageantry and college. Warner Bros. expressed interest in her, Decca Records scheduled an audition, and television and modeling opportunities followed. She appeared on a Bob Hope TV show and entertained countless invitations to pageants and special appearances for years. Yet friends and reporters consistently described Brown as the same friendly North Louisiana girl who happened to wear a national crown.
In January 1962 she was selected Queen of the Sugar Bowl, one of the South’s premier sporting events. She also earned another unique distinction when Dell Publications selected her as Miss Ideal Figure for 1962, placing her alongside a list of celebrated beauty icons that included Marilyn Monroe.
Brown’s résumé remains extraordinary—Miss Northeast Louisiana Stock Show in 1960; Miss Louisiana and Miss USA in 1961; fourth runner-up at Miss Universe and Miss Photogenic; and Sugar Bowl Queen in 1962—but those titles tell only part of her story.
The crowns made Sharon Brown famous, but it is the image of the Louisiana Tech cheerleader from a place so tiny it’s labeled a “village” to a spot on the world stage that makes her story unforgettable. More than six decades later, her journey from Waterproof to Ruston to a crown in Miami Beach remains one of Louisiana Tech’s greatest untold stories and one of North Louisiana’s most remarkable achievements.
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