{{Short description|American singer, model, activist (1928–2016)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Yolande Fox | image = Yolande Betbeze NYWTS.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Betbeze in 1950 | birth_name = Yolande Margaret Betbeze | birth_date = {{birth date|1928|11|28}} | birth_place = Mobile, Alabama, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|02|22|1928|11|28}} | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | nationality = | alma_mater = New School for Social Research | occupation = Opera singer, activist | title = Miss America 1951 | predecessor = Jacque Mercer | successor = Colleen Kay Hutchins | spouse = {{marriage|Matthew M. Fox|1954|1964|reason=died}} | partner = Cherif Guellal | children = Yolande Fox Campbell | relatives = Paris Campbell Grace (granddaughter) }}
'''Yolande Margaret Betbeze Fox''' (November 28, 1928 – February 22, 2016) was an American singer, feminist activist, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss America 1951.
==Early life== Betbeze was born on November 28, 1928, in Mobile, Alabama, to William, a butcher, and Ethel Betbeze.<ref name ="wapost death" /><ref name="mopr140417">{{cite news |first=Sally Pearsall |last=Ericson |newspaper=Press-Register |publisher=Advance Publications |location=Mobile, AL |title=A famous Mobilian you should know: Yolande Betbeze Fox, an outspoken beauty queen |url=http://blog.al.com/live/2014/04/a_famous_mobilian_you_should_k_4.html |date=April 17, 2014 |access-date=June 10, 2015}}</ref> Betbeze was raised in a Catholic family of French Basque descent, and she attended convent schools.<ref name="Yolande Betbeze">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Alabama |title=Yolande Betbeze |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1879 |access-date=August 24, 2013 |archive-date=March 13, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313145350/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1879 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Career== thumb|Aboard the {{USS|Monterey|CVL-26|6}} in 1951 She captured her first crown in 1949 when she won Mobile's "Miss Torch" pageant.<ref name="Yolande Betbeze"/> In 1950, Fox (then Betbeze) entered Miss Alabama for the scholarship opportunities the pageant presented.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Miss Alabama |title=Miss Alabama History |url=http://www.missalabama.com/miss-alabama-history |access-date=June 11, 2015}}</ref> As Miss Alabama, she traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to compete in the Miss America 1951 pageant. Having been educated in a convent school, she was reluctant to pose<ref name="gettyimages/515461368">{{cite web |title=Miss America 1951, Yolande Betbeze |url=https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/miss-america-1951-yolande-betbeze-is-shown-here-news-photo/515461368 |website=Getty Images |language=en-us |date=September 1, 1951 |quote=Yolande Betbeze Wearing Swim Suit (Original Caption) Miss America 1951, Yolande Betbeze is shown here.}}</ref> in a swimsuit and refused to do so after she won Miss America.<ref name="hsvt140909">{{cite news |first=Mia |last=Watkins |newspaper=The Huntsville Times |publisher=Advance Publications |location=Huntsville, AL |title=Yolande Betbeze Fox: Alabama's first Miss America reflects on title more than 60 years later |url=http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/09/yolande_betbeze_fox_alabamas_f.html |date=September 9, 2014 |access-date=June 10, 2015}}</ref> That led the swimsuit company, Catalina, to withdraw their sponsorship of Miss America and eventually brought about the creation of the rival Miss USA pageant.<ref name="mopr140417"/>
Fox's Miss America title, although won in 1950, was for 1951 and is the first Miss America title to be "postdated" in this manner. Due to the change, there was no Miss America 1950. The Miss America Organization has claimed that Fox's (then Betbeze's) actions were pivotal in directing pageant progress towards recognizing intellect, values, and leadership abilities, rather than focusing on beauty alone. From then on, the pageant concentrated more on scholarship than beauty.<ref name="mopr140417"/>
Fox was active in the feminist movement. After her one-year reign as Miss America, she was active in the NAACP, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), and SANE (The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy); and studied philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Fox was an opera singer and did gain a reputation in that area. She continued to sing, appearing with the Mobile Opera Guild (now the Mobile Opera), and helped found an off-Broadway theater.<ref name="Yolande Betbeze"/> [[File:Newton D. Baker House - Washington, D.C.jpg|thumb|Fox's home in Washington, D.C.]]
==Personal life== She married movie magnate Matthew M. Fox, the former vice president of Universal Pictures, in 1954.<ref name="People people">{{cite web|first1=Michelle |last1=Tauber |first2=Mike |last2=Neill |first3=Lisa |last3=Russell |first4=Joanne|last4=Fowler |first5=Julie |last5=Dam |first6=Alex |last6=Tresniowski |first7=Samantha |last7=Miller |first8=Steve |last8=Dougherty |first9=Ting |last9=Yu |title= American Beauties: 80 Years |work= People |url=https://people.com/archive/american-beauties-80-years-vol-54-no-16/ |date=October 16, 2000}}</ref> They had one daughter, Yolande "Dolly" Fox Campbell.<ref name="hsvt140909"/> Her husband died of a heart attack in 1964, after 10 years of marriage.<ref name="New York">{{cite news|last1=Staff|title=Matthew M. Fox, an Executive In Movies and TV, Dead at 53; Vice President of Universal at 25, He Was 'Economic Godfather of Indonesia'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/03/archives/matthew-m-fox-an-executive-in-movies-and-tv-dead-at-53-vice.html|access-date=June 16, 2024|work=The New York Times|date=June 3, 1964}}</ref>
After her husband's death, she moved to Georgetown, Washington, D.C., purchasing the Newton D. Baker House from Michael Whitney Straight and his then wife Nina Gore Auchincloss. The home had previously been the residence of Jacqueline Kennedy after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.<ref name="Cinc">{{cite news|last1=Staff|title=Mrs. Onassis, 'Gracious Full of Pep,' D.C. Socialite Says|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/101037108/|access-date=March 14, 2016|publisher=The Cincinnati Enquirer|date=December 7, 1975}}</ref>
Fox had a relationship with Cherif Guellal, with whom she raised her grandchild, Yolande Paris Campbell, until Guellal's death in 2009.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/across-the-nationacross-the-world/2016/washington-social-diary-the-last-of-the-georgetown-dames|title=Society News from Across the Nation|newspaper=New York Social Diary }}</ref>
In the early 1990s, Yolande Fox was contacted by the writer Philip Roth, who was researching the Miss America beauty pageant for his novel ''American Pastoral''. Roth studied Fox's scrapbooks and interviewed her about the culture surrounding the pageant in the late 1940s; he later said, "She was very smart, very funny....She just opened up whole ideas for me that I couldn't have had on my own."<ref>Sykes, Christopher. [https://www.webofstories.com/play/philip.roth/101;jsessionid=D0DAA6FCD5CBCE6B73F2B514AEFACC7B "Researching Miss America,"] Web of Stories, Mar. 18 2013.</ref>
Fox died on February 22, 2016, in Washington, D.C. of lung cancer.<ref name ="wapost death">{{Cite news| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/yolande-betbeze-fox-a-miss-america-who-rebelled-dies-at-87/2016/02/25/32374126-dbda-11e5-81ae-7491b9b9e7df_story.html| title = Yolande Betbeze Fox, a Miss America who rebelled, dies at 87| last = Bernstein| first = Adam| date = February 25, 2016| newspaper = The Washington Post| language = en-US| issn = 0190-8286| access-date = February 26, 2016}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090327141135/http://www.missamerica.org/our-miss-americas/1950/1951.aspx Yolande Betbeze's bio on the Miss America site] * [http://www.missalabama.com/ Miss Alabama official website]
{{s-start}} {{s-ach}} {{succession box | before = Jacque Mercer | title = Miss America | years = 1951 | after = Colleen Kay Hutchins }} {{succession box | before = Freida Roser | title = Miss Alabama | years = 1950 | after = Jeanne Moody }} {{s-end}}
{{MissAmericas 1940–1959}} {{Alabama pageant winners}} {{Miss America}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Yolande}} Category:1928 births Category:2016 deaths Category:Miss America 1950s delegates Category:Miss America Preliminary Swimsuit winners Category:Miss America winners Category:American opera singers Category:American feminist musicians Category:American musicians of Basque descent Category:Basque singers Category:Musicians from Mobile, Alabama Category:American anti–nuclear weapons activists Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Washington, D.C. Category:People from Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) Category:Singers from Alabama