Debra Miles is as beautiful today as she was when she was crowned Miss America in 1968. She’s a genuine, hometown girl who has always stayed true to herself, her family, and her belief in Jesus Christ. She believes she won the title of Miss America, not because she was the most beautiful or talented woman in America, but because God had a plan for her life.

I was born in 1947 *[in] Moran, Kansas. I thought [my childhood] was good. We had a really close class. Twelve out of twenty of us were born and raised in Moran, and graduated from high school together. So, we had pretty lasting relationships. I have a sister who’s three and a half years younger than I, so we grew up together and fought like sisters. Music was a big part of my growing up. The only complication was my mom having multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed when I was eight, and so my grandparents on both sides came into play. We did a lot of staying with them while she was in the hospital, and they were a big influence on me too. I graduated from Moran High School, then went to college at PSU.

When I was in college, my first year, was the very first time they had a pageant in Pittsburg. There was an organization on campus called Phi U Alpha Symphonia. Every organization got a letter from the student senate saying that they needed to sponsor a contestant because that’s how they were going to get started. So, that organization came to me and said, “We’ve decided that you’re going to be our contestant in the Pittsburg State Pageant.”

And I said, “What’s that?”

And they said, “We really don’t know.”

And I said, “Then why did you choose me?”

And they said, “Because our contestant has to come up with a three minute talent, and we know you can play the piano. So, you can just, you know, wheel it out on stage and play, and then wheel it back and it can be very convenient.”

So that’s how I got into my first pageant. I was really sure I was not the type, because I was raised in a small town; and I wanted to play sports, and I didn’t like fashion magazines, and doing my nails, and I didn’t wear makeup.

I was first runner up, and the next year I was volunteered by another organization called Kiwanis, an honorary service organization. They decided I was going be their contestant again, and I said, “Why? I already tried and lost.” She [said], you already have all the clothes. Nobody told me I was going to win.

As far as [entering] the local pageant, they just wrote my name down and paid, I think, like ten dollars. And then I had to have a long dress and I had to have a talent. But it wasn’t in anyway competitive as far as clothing was concerned. There wasn’t anything flashy because that was the first pageant and none of us knew what we were doing.

I never expected to win. The second time that I entered the Miss Pitt State they had a little bit more scholarship, and I thought that that would be really good because I was going to school on a loan-- and they had a one hundred and fifty dollar scholarship which was nice. I was really excited about maybe winning that.

[Miss America is] always in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was started in 1921 as something to keep the tourists there because the seashore was a very tourist kind of thing and they always left by Labor Day because the weather started turning cold. So, the Chamber of Commerce wanted to keep the people there, so they scheduled this big celebration, and the first Miss America pageant was part of that celebration. You compete in swimsuit, evening gown, judges’ interview, and talent. The talent was fifty percent, the judge’s interview, the evening gown, and the swimsuit were the other fifty percent added to the other. But now the percentages have changed, and I think this year talent was down to thirty five percent, judge’s interview was up higher.

I have absolutely no idea [why I won]; except for the fact that I really do believe it was the plan of God for my life. The Lord knew that eventually I would serve him, and that being Miss America would open a lot of doors so that I could live for him and be a witness.

Debra as Miss America in 1968.

I was pretty naïve. I trusted everybody because growing up in a small town you do, you don’t think that people might do you wrong, or talk about you, or be negative. I had a lot to learn, and so that was a very good experience.

[My family] couldn’t believe it. They knew all of my problems, and my faults and stuff, and they didn’t think that could really happen. [My boyfriend] didn’t like it. He was convinced, and other people helped him be convinced, that I probably wouldn’t marry him-- [that] I probably wouldn’t be his girlfriend after this happened to me. And so he was a little discouraged, but we’ve been married for thirty five years.

[When I was Miss America], I usually had to be on a plane by seven or eight in the morning. So everything that goes with packing up and getting ready to get off the plane. Because when you step off the plane, whatever is planned, you have to do-- like a luncheon, or an afternoon sitting, or photo shoot, or whatever.

[As Miss America] I traveled every day, except nine days for Christmas. I traveled about 250,000 miles. Every morning we would get up and get on a plane and go some place, about fifty or sixty percent of Miss America’s year is already booked before she’s even crowned. For instance, Pepsi-Cola was a sponsor and so we did a lot of publicity shots for them. Then Oldsmobile was one sponsor; so when the new cars came out, we’d do a lot of showroom sitting and giving autographs. We did the Azalea Festival, the Dogwood Festival, the Peanut Festival, the Watermelon Festival, and any excuse for people to get together, and Miss America would be invited and I would sit in a throne type thing and hand out autograph pictures to people.

[The best memory was] probably the trip to Japan and Korea. We did a USO show with seven other contestants that were competing with me at the pageant, and the following August we brought all of those contestants together and we put together a show. A musical type, dancing and singing thing, to entertain the troops. The Miss America before me and after me went to Vietnam because that’s when the war was really hot over there. But that particular year, ‘68, it was so dangerous over there because so much was going on that they didn’t have the security to make sure that we were safe. So we went to Japan and Korea, and we realized that the troops there pretty much had been forgotten because all the attention was on Vietnam. But there were guys that were dying close to Freedom Bridge; so we went to do shows for them. And that was special to me because I felt like I was doing something for somebody else.

[Once] I was booked to do a speaking engagement, and actually it wasn’t really a speaking engagement, it was an opening of a theater. They had taken an old theater and supposedly they had renovated the theater, and this man, this promoter was doing a big grand opening. We got there and found out that this guy was a fake, and everybody knew that he was a fake in that town, except my booking agent didn’t know it. So, not only was the theater not renovated, but nobody came. And so I had to go through with my commitment because my contract was that I would sit for a certain number of hours and sign autograph pictures; and then I would play the piano for the big event that was going to be that night. Well, I played to an empty hall that wasn’t renovated and nothing was right, and nobody came, and so it was a difficult situation. But I think those things make you grow up, you know. If you don’t always have your way, then you decide you’re going to live through it.

[The pageants] changed big time. I think the platform’s the biggest change. Back when Kaye Lani Rae Rafko was Miss America, [in] ‘88, because she was a nursing student, what she did was use her speaking engagements to encourage people into the medical field because there was a shortage in nursing students; and she used that for a really good purpose. So the pageant thought this would be great if every contestant would have something that she passionately believed in, and that she participated in. That this pulpit, so to speak, could be used for something good-- whether it be breast cancer awareness, or mentoring, or all the numerous things these contestants believe in. It couldn’t be just an opinion, it had to be something that she was already participating in, and I think that’s the biggest way the pageant has changed.

[In retrospect,] I would be more outspoken about my opinions and things because, at that time, Miss America was really looked at pretty much as just a pretty person. Even though it was a scholarship pageant, it wasn’t really accepted for Miss America to have an opinion. They encouraged me not to speak my mind because if you do, then you make about half of the people mad because they disagree. But shortly thereafter, they realized that a young woman who’s in her early 20’s is going to have an opinion, she’s going to have a boyfriend and all of those things that I wasn’t allowed to speak out on. So, I would be, hopefully, a little more courageous and speak my mind.

I’ve spoken to elementary, secondary, junior colleges, colleges, about my Miss America experience; but more than anything about my relationship with Jesus Christ. Then, [for] about twenty years, I’ve been doing something that really is fun, and that’s the Miss Nursing Home pageant. In Missouri they have seven districts for the Nursing Home Association; and when they have a convention, they invite every nursing home to send a candidate to one of these pageants. Then the winners all go to the convention, and they have a pageant to select Miss Missouri Nursing Home, who becomes part of the governor’s commission on aging and she travels around. Well, most of them are in wheel chairs, you know, most of them are in their 80’s and some 90’s. There was one Miss Nursing Home who was 104 years old, very sharp; and they are so well-read, and wise, and I just really enjoyed doing that and we have a lot of fun. But that’s probably the thing that has lasted the most through out my years as a former Miss America.

Debra as a piano teacher at MSSU

I think [being Miss America] was probably the biggest thing that brought me to my relationship with Jesus Christ. I had a plan for my life just like everybody does; and I thought, oh, if I can just get out of high school, then I’ll go to college. Then I’ll meet somebody, we’ll get married and have a family. We’ll have lots of money and a big house. You know, I had all these plans, and I thought that would make me happy. Being Miss America gave me not only my ten thousand dollar scholarship, [which] paid for all my education; but I made money everyday that I was Miss America. And so I had money, I had clothes, and I married my college sweetheart, and we started a family and I got up and said every morning, “Is this all there is?”

And you would have looked at my life and said, “What’s wrong with you? You’ve got it made.” I just knew there had to be something more. So when I was twenty-two years old, I had come to the end of myself, knowing that this isn’t getting it. It usually takes people until they’re retired to come to the end of themselves, or if some tragedy happens in their lives, or something brings them to the point [that] they say, “There’s gotta be more than this.” But I was twenty-two years old, and realized that there had to be more. So I started searching, and I found that the reason for my living is Jesus Christ. God put me here, He has control, and I know where I’m going when I finish here.

* indicates words not said by Debra Miles

This oral history was conducted by Christine Wilson in January 2005.