12 Facts About Venus Ramey

Venus Ramey Murphy was an American beauty pageant contestant, and later an activist.

Venus Ramey won the Miss America competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 9,1944.

Venus Ramey later left Kentucky to work for the war effort in Washington, DC.

Venus Ramey won the Miss District of Columbia pageant and then became Miss America in 1944.

Venus Ramey was the first Miss America to be photographed in color and the first red-haired contestant to win the national title.

Venus Ramey was wooed by Hollywood in 1947, but dissatisfied with show business, she returned home to her Eubank, Kentucky, tobacco farm in Lincoln County, Kentucky.

Venus Ramey became the first Miss America to run for public office, seeking a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Venus Ramey was a tobacco farmer who, in 1999, filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the federal government for $300 billion for its anti-tobacco policies.

Venus Ramey was a write-in candidate for the 2000 presidential election.

Venus Ramey raised two sons, Joseph Henry "Hank" Murphy III and Martin Wallace "Wally" Murphy, who survive her.

Venus Ramey died in an Agoura Hills, California, hospice on June 17,2017, at the age of 92.

Venus Ramey's funeral was held at a Science Hill, Kentucky, funeral home on July 2,2017, followed by burial at the Eubank Cemetery in Pulaski County, Kentucky.