Venus Ramey was Miss America

Miss America

The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

 in 1944, and was the first red-haired contestant to win the title.

Ramey competed as Miss District of Columbia

Miss District of Columbia

The Miss District of Columbia competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the District of Columbia in the Miss America pageant. The District has twice won the title of Miss America....

 and worked during her reign to help win suffrage for Washington D.C. in 1945. Later, she became the first Miss America to run for public office, seeking a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives

Kentucky House of Representatives

The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a House district, except when necessary to preserve...

.
She was wooed by Hollywood in 1947, but, disgusted with show business, she returned home to her Eubank, Kentucky

Eubank, Kentucky

Eubank is a city in Lincoln and Pulaski Counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The population was 358 at the 2000 census.The Pulaski County portion of Eubank is part of the Somerset Micropolitan Statistical Area, while the Lincoln County portion is part of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area...

 tobacco farm (which she has maintained for over fifty years) in Pulaski County, Kentucky

Pulaski County, Kentucky

Pulaski County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The population was 63,063 in the 2010 Census. Its county seat is Somerset6. The county is named for Count Kazimierz Pułaski. Most of the county is a prohibition or dry county...

. She married and raised two sons.

In the 1970s, Ramey successfully campaigned to save Over-the-Rhine

Over-the-Rhine

Over-the-Rhine, sometimes shortened to OTR, is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is believed to be the largest, most intact urban historic district in the United States. Over-the-Rhine was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 with 943 contributing buildings...

, a neighborhood in Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. The neighborhood was eventually listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

, and her work led her to make an unsuccessful bid for a spot on the Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

 City Council.

Ramey was critical of later Miss America winners Vanessa L. Williams

Vanessa L. Williams

Vanessa Lynn Williams is an American pop-R&B recording artist, producer, dancer, model, actress and showgirl. In 1983, she became the first woman of African-American descent to be crowned Miss America, but a scandal generated by her having posed for nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine...

 (1984) and Kate Shindle (1998), calling the former a "slut

Slut

Slut or slattern is a pejorative term applied to an individual who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous...

" for posing nude in a photo shoot, and blasting the latter for her support of condom distribution in schools. (In an open letter to Shindle, Ramey charged "there is a name for girls who hand out condoms, and it isn't Miss America.")

In April 2007, Ramey confronted intruders who had entered a storage building on her farm where thieves had previously stolen equipment. She used a snub-nose .38 revolver

Revolver

A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...

 to shoot out the tires on their pickup truck, then flagged down a car and had the driver call 911, holding the would-be-thieves until the sheriff arrived. "I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it", she said. "If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be six feet under by now."

The resulting notoriety led to an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Jay Leno

James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...

. Asked how she had learned to use a gun, Ramey shot back, "I'm from Kentucky!" Leno then asked her opinion of President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

, to which she replied, "I think he's a spoiled-brat rich kid that needs a spanking."
In 1944 a B17 of the 15th Air Force, 396th bomb group was named the Venus Ramey. This plane is reputed to be one of the longest lived B17's of the war having flown over 150 missions and survived the war. It was later scrapped.