Arlene Howell a.k.a. Eurlyne Howell, was an American television actress who held the Miss USA

Miss USA

The Miss USA beauty contest has been held annually since 1952 to select the United States entrant in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operates both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA...

 1958 title.

Howell became the first of three Miss Louisiana USA

Miss Louisiana USA

The Miss Louisiana USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Louisiana in the Miss USA pageant.Louisiana is one of the most successful states at Miss USA and is one of only seven states to have had three or more Miss USAs.Three Miss Louisiana USA titleholders...

 titleholders to win the Miss USA

Miss USA

The Miss USA beauty contest has been held annually since 1952 to select the United States entrant in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operates both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA...

 crown when she won the Miss USA 1958 pageant held in Long Beach, California

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

 in July 1958. That same week she competed in the Miss Universe

Miss Universe

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The pageant is the most publicized beauty contest in the world with 600 million viewers....

 pageant and placed 3rd runner-up.

Her most well-known recurring acting roles were as Cindy Lou Brown in Maverick

Maverick (TV series)

Maverick is a western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, a cagey, articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother...

and as secretary Melody Lee Mercer in the 1959 detective series Bourbon Street Beat

Bourbon Street Beat

Bourbon Street Beat is a private detective series which aired on the ABC network from 1959-1960 and featured Andrew Duggan as Cal Calhoun, Richard Long as Rex Randolph, Van Williams as Kenny Madison, and Arlene Howell as Melody Lee Mercer, the secretary at the New Orleans detective agency in which...

with Andrew Duggan

Andrew Duggan

-Career:During World War II, Duggan was in the 40th Special Services Company, led by actor Melvyn Douglas in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. His contact with Douglas later led to his performing with Lucille Ball in the play Dreamgirl. He developed a friendship with Broadway...

, Richard Long

Richard Long (actor)

Richard Long was an American actor better known for his leading roles in several ABC television series, including The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor and Bourbon Street Beat.-Early life:...

, and Van Williams

Van Williams

Van Zandt Williams is a former actor best known for his television role as Britt Reid/the Green Hornet. He teamed for one season with the late Bruce Lee as his partner Kato, in the television series The Green Hornet, broadcast on ABC during the 1966-67 season.Williams was also known for his...

. In addition to a cameo appearance in the oft-discussed "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres

Shady Deal at Sunny Acres

Shady Deal at Sunny Acres, starring James Garner and Jack Kelly, remains the most famous and widely discussed episode of the Western comedy television series Maverick. Written by series creator Roy Huggins and Douglas Heyes and directed by Leslie H...

" Maverick episode, Howell also appeared in the series' installments "Island in the Swamp" with James Garner

James Garner

James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...

 and Edgar Buchanan

Edgar Buchanan

Edgar Buchanan was an American actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s...

, "Alias Bart Maverick" and "Passage to Fort Doom" opposite Jack Kelly

Jack Kelly (actor)

Jack Kelly was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of "Bart Maverick" in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962...

, as well as in 77 Sunset Strip

77 Sunset Strip

77 Sunset Strip is an hour-length American television private detective series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes....

, Bronco

Bronco (TV series)

Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James,...

, Alcoa Premiere (in "Whatever Happened to Miss Illinois?"), and as "Flora" in an unusually memorable episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.The show renders the title as Gomer Pyle - USMC. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy...

in 1966, in which Gomer paired her off with a dumbfounded Sergeant Carter (Frank Sutton

Frank Sutton

Frank Spencer Sutton was an American actor best remembered for his role of Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter on the CBS television series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.-Early life:...

). Howell appears to have left show business at this juncture. She married Paul LaCava.

External links

• Arlene Howell in the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
  
  
• Miss USA official website