Community Corner
Beauty From Port Jeff Just Misses 1960 Miss USA Title
Mary Rodites, a dental hygienist from Port Jefferson was first runner up.
Back in 1960 Mary Rodites, a dental hygienist from Port Jefferson, narrowly missed representing the United States in the Miss Universe pageant on July 7 when she lost the Miss USA title to Linda Bement from Utah.
Rodites was Miss New York that year and competed in Florida in the beauty pageant 51 years ago this week, according to a newspaper report in the Milwaukee Journal dated June 21, 1960. A picture in the newspaper shows Rodite posing in her swimsuit and gives her measurements as 36-26-36.
Various newspapers at the time featured photos of Bement who went on to win the Miss Universe pageant that year but here at Port Jefferson Patch hometown pride will not allow us to say anything but that the wrong beauty queen won the contest.
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If you have any information or know Ms. Rodites contact editor Lon Cohen at lon.cohen@patch.com. We’d like to follow up on this story about a Port Jeff beauty queen.
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