Jean and Jane Cunningham, identical twins, sit in the back of a Chevrolet convertible in this 1947 photo preserved at ChattanoogaHistory.com. The sisters had just returned from competing in the 1947 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J. / Photo contributed from ChattanoogaHistory.com’s EPB collection.There were no bigger celebrities here in 1947 than Jean and Jane Cunningham, identical twins sisters from Chattanooga who both made it to the Miss America pageant.
The pair, who came to be known nationally as the “Chattanooga twins,” won the hearts of judges at the city and state level and later competed separately in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Jean finished among 15 finalists in the national competition, while Jane was not chosen in the top group. Meanwhile, the two were eclipsed at the national pageant by Barbara Jo Walker, Miss Memphis, who became the first woman from the South to be crowned Miss America. In those days, multiple contestants from a state could qualify for the Miss America pageant.
The twins are pictured here upon their return to Chattanooga on Sept. 13, 1947, riding in the back of a Chevrolet Fleetmaster convertible. The photo is one of a number of images in the EPB collection archived at ChattanoogaHistory.com, a website devoted to preserving historic photographs.
A Sept. 8, 1947, Chattanooga newspaper report carried the front-page headline: “Twins Win Big Share of Pageant Glory.” The report noted that Jean won $1,000 for her Top 15 finish, and Walker, of Memphis, won $5,000 for taking the crown.