Fay Lamphier

Who was Fay Lamphier?

Fay Elinora Lamphier was a model most noted for becoming Miss California in 1924 and Miss America in 1925. She was also the 1925 Rose Queen. To date, she is the only person to hold both titles at the same time. She is also the first Miss California to become Miss America. Before she was Miss California, she was Miss Santa Cruz. She graduated from Oakland High School in 1924.

Lamphier appeared in the Paramount Pictures film The American Venus which featured a beauty contest, and co-starred Louise Brooks, and performed for a short time on stage in San Francisco with the Henry Duffy Players.

She was born in El Dorado, California, the eldest child of Percival Caspar Lamphier and Emily Elenora Olson, with five other siblings coming after her.

She was briefly married to Sidney M. Spiegel. In 1931, she married her high-school sweetheart Winfield Daniels, by whom she had daughters. She lived in Oakland California suburb Orinda until her death from viral pneumonia at age 53.