Kimberly Louise Tomes (born August 20, 1955) is an American model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 1977. 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 nativ ...

title in 1976 and later represented Texas in the Miss USA 1977 pageant held in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

. In the nationally televised pageant, Tomes won the

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, 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 was the 26th Miss Universe pageant, 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 Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

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

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Tomes holds a degree in

physical education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, 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 beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 2001 and represented the United States in the Miss Universe 2001 where she was a finished second runner-up. Pageants Miss Texas USA ...

and

2001. She later worked in the

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...

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 Models from Houston Texas A&M University alumni {{US-entertainer-stub