Jackie Loughery

Jacqueline Loughery (born April 18, 1930), sometimes credited as Evelyn Avery, is an American actress and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 1952, becoming the first-ever winner of the Miss USA competition. She had previously been crowned Miss New York USA 1952

Loughery was born and raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Loughery.

In 1952, Loughery won the Miss USA title after a second ballot broke a first-place tie. Loughery, a redhead, went on to represent the US at the first Miss Universe pageant, where she placed ninth.

Part of her prize package as Miss USA included a contract with Universal Pictures, which led to a career in movies and television. She adopted the stage name Evelyn Avery, but is more often credited with her own name (the name she used when she won the Miss USA title).

Loughery appeared in several films, including the 1956 comedy Pardners with Martin and Lewis and the 1957 drama The D.I., with Jack Webb, whom she would marry. She was featured in 1957's Eighteen and Anxious and top-billed in the following year's The Hot Angel.

In 1951, Loughery appeared in the short-lived variety show Seven at Eleven. In 1954, she was Johnny Carson's assistant in the short lived game show Earn Your Vacation.

In 1956, Loughery co-starred with Edgar Buchanan and Jack Buetel in the syndicated western television series Judge Roy Bean, having appeared as Bean's niece, Letty. Buetel, a star of the 1941 film The Outlaw, was cast in the series as Bean's deputy, Jeff Taggert.

Loughery also had non-recurring roles in numerous television programs through the 1950s and 1960s, including the syndicated western 26 Men in the episode "Runaway Stage". In 1958, she appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

In 1957 and 1958 she made five guest appearances on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show; three as Joyce Collins and the other two as Vicki Donovan. In 1963 she appeared on Perry Mason as Nell Grimes, who murdered her husband, the title character, in "The Case of the Bigamous Spouse." She appeared as Martha, sister of sheriff Sam Phelps in the May 18, 1961 episode of Bat Masterson, "Farmer with a Badge".

She was married to singer Guy Mitchell in October 1953. That marriage ended and she remarried, to actor Jack Webb, in July 1958. (A 1964 newspaper brief reported that Loughery and Webb were wed June 24, 1958 in Studio City.) She divorced Webb in March 1964.