Mary Leona Gage facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mary Leona Gage
Gage, circa 1965
Born	(1939-04-08)April 8, 1939 Longview, Texas, U.S.
Died	October 5, 2010(2010-10-05) (aged 71) Sherman Oaks, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress model beauty pageant holder
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Title	Miss Maryland USA 1957 Miss USA 1957 (Dethroned)
Spouse(s)	Gene Ennis ​ (m. 1953⁠–⁠1958)​
Children	5
Beauty pageant titleholder
Major competition(s)	Miss Maryland USA 1957 (Winner) Miss USA 1957 (Winner) (Dethroned) Miss Universe 1957 (Top 15) (Disqualified)

Mary Leona Gage (April 8, 1939 – October 5, 2010) was an American actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 1957, the first from Maryland to capture the Miss USA crown. She was stripped of her title when it was revealed that she was 18, married, and the mother of two children.

Early life

She was a toddler when her parents moved from Longview, Texas to nearby Wichita Falls. Her mother worked two jobs. Her father, paralyzed in an industrial accident, stayed home. She was 13 years old when she met 24-year-old Gene Ennis, an airman in the U.S. Air Force. When Gage became pregnant and attempted to write to Ennis after he shipped out, he never responded. A drugstore employee who was getting married suggested she should get married with a volunteer groom. Gage agreed and they headed to Oklahoma for a double wedding. She married an airman named Edward Thacker. At her mother's insistence, the marriage to Thacker was annulled within the week.

When Ennis came back into her life in 1953, Gage, still only 14, married him in Wichita Falls; they moved to Manhattan Beach, Maryland (near Severna Park). She had their second child at age 16. The marriage quickly unraveled. A doctor suggested that she get a job to ease her pain and prevent a nervous breakdown. She was working in a dress shop in Glen Burnie, Maryland, when she met Barbara Mewshaw, a part-time model. Mewshaw introduced her to the Walters Modeling Agency and helped her enter the Miss Maryland USA pageant. Gage wanted to be in the pageant in the hopes of working as a model. Once entered in the contest she won.

She told the head of the modeling agency that she was married and could not go to the Miss USA pageant. She claimed one of the pageant officials told her to lie to the public. Pageant officials in Baltimore deny that they told her to lie.

Both women flew to Long Beach, California, for the Miss USA pageant.

Aftermath and later life

When news of Gage's marriage broke, she was inundated with requests to appear on television. Her appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was one of CBS's highest rated shows at the time. She also received hate mail.

1957-1964

In 1957, still aged 18, she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada with her two sons. She worked as a featured showgirl at the Hotel Tropicana. In early 1958, Gage divorced Ennis. She met dancer Nick Covacevich, who became her third husband. In 1961, she filed for divorce from Covacevich and moved to Los Angeles, California, where she met her eventual fourth husband, an aspiring screenwriter, Gunther Peter Collatz.

In 1962, she appeared in the Roger Corman film Tales of Terror. In 1964, she had a tiny role in the film A House Is Not A Home and divorced Collatz. She also appeared in the 1964 exploitation film Scream of the Butterfly directed by Eber Lobato, co-starring Nélida Lobato.

1965-1980

In 1965 her first book was published, My Name Is Leona Gage, Will Somebody Please Help Me? Her picture appeared on the cover of the ghostwritten book. At the end of 1965 she starred in the film Scream of the Butterfly. The film was not received well. After an unsuccessful movie career she enrolled in hairdressing school. In 1966 she began work singing and dancing in burlesque clubs, married for the fifth and sixth times, and had another son for a total of five children, one daughter and four sons. She eventually lost custody of her children. Her daughter lived with her off and on. A comeback attempt in commercials was unsuccessful. In the 1970s and 1980s, she attempted work in mainstream acting roles.

Gage lived in Southern California from the 1960s until her death from heart failure in a hospital many years after being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Filmography

Film

Television