Kimberly Louise Tomes (born August 20, 1955) is a beauty queen from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

who has held

Miss USA Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020, ...

title. Tomes won the

Miss Texas USA The Miss Texas USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state Texas in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. This pageant is part of the Miss USA Organization, owned by Texas native C ...

title in 1976 and later represented Texas in the

Miss USA 1977 Miss USA 1977 was the 26th Miss USA pageant, televised live by CBS from the Gillard Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, South Carolina on May 14, 1977. The pageant was won by Kimberly Tomes of Texas, who was crowned by outgoing titleholder Barb ...

pageant held in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. In the nationally televised pageant, Tomes won the

title, becoming the first woman from Texas to do so. Her placement followed many high placements for Texas in previous years and a consistent level of achievement throughout the pageant's history. In July Tomes represented the United States at the

Miss Universe 1977 Miss Universe 1977, the 26th Miss Universe pageant, was held on 16 July 1977 at the National Theater in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It was the first time in the pageant's history that the event was held in Dominican Republic. Janelle Comm ...

pageant held in

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

and made the semi-finals. As Miss USA Tomes made appearances in the United States and also traveled to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Tomes holds a degree in

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, one of two Miss USA winners to graduate from that university. The second is

Kandace Krueger Kandace Gayle Krueger Matthews (born May 27, 1976) is an American journalist, singer, TV Host and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 2001 and represented the United States in the Miss Universe 2001 where she placed second runner-up. She i ...

and

2001. She later worked in the

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

industry, and retained ties to the Miss Texas USA pageant, hosting the event for twelve years.

References

1956 births Living people Miss Universe 1977 contestants Miss USA winners People from Houston Texas A&M University alumni {{US-entertainer-stub