Background
She told everyone that she was born in May 1905 but later admitted that she had lied about her age.
She told everyone that she was born in May 1905 but later admitted that she had lied about her age.
Ohio State University. Ohio Wesleyan University.
Competing as "Mission Columbus," Campbell was only sixteen years old at the time of her first crowning in 1922. She lied about her age by nearly one year to enter the pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She became "Mission Columbus" over a field of 170 other women, and proceeded to Atlantic City, where the Inter-City competition had grown to include 57 women from around the country.
Mary Katherine received offers from three movies, two Broadway musical comedies, a circus, and Vaudeville.
She was even approached by Flo Ziegfeld to become a Ziegfeld Girl, and perform with the famous Ziegfeld Follies, but her mother wouldn"t permit lieutenant Mary Katherine was allowed to sing "My Buddy" on the Keith Circuit for several weeks, but, "You couldn"t hear me past the third row", she explained.
She also attended Ohio Wesleyan. Campbell was of French, Swedish, Swiss, English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry.
Campbell married Frederick Townley, an executive at DuPont, and died in 1990.
Campbell was Mission America 1922 and Mission America 1923, and she was also 1st Runner Up at the 1924 Mission America Pageant. After the 1924 pageant, in which the judge"s scores revealed that Campbell had almost won the title a third time, the Mission America Organization changed the rules so that "a contestant may only win the Mission America title once." lieutenant would be the last time in Mission America history where "professional" (model, Dorothy Knapp (1907-1986)) and "amateur" (West Philadelphia"s Gladys Grenemeyer) winners would be judged as finalists against the "Inter-City" champion (Mary Katherine Campbell) and place as runners-up to the Mission America title. Campbell entered her second successful attempt in the beauty pageant as Mission America competing in Atlantic City against a field of 74 other women from 36 states. Campbell had graduated with a diploma from East High School in February 1922, and entered Ohio State University as an art major immediately after her selection as Mission America. This made her the first pageant winner to attend college.
She was also a member of Pi Beta Phi"s Ohio Beta chapter at Ohio State University.