For 68 years, all Betha Young had from being named Miss New Mexico was her memories.
Young, 90, won the competition 1948, when she was 22 years old. But because of post-World War II cutbacks, she never received her sash and crown, according to the Miss America Organization.
She finally got to experience that moment of officially being crowned when the reigning Miss America, Betty Cantrell, presented her with a sash and crown on May 14 at a ceremony in Albuquerque.
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"Betha is 90 years old and still beautiful as ever!" Cantrell wrote on the Miss America Organization's Facebook page.
It's the latest situation involving a past winner that the Miss America Organization has worked to rectify. At last year's ceremony crowning Cantrell, the competition's executive chairman and CEO, Sam Haskell III, apologized to 1984 Miss America winner Vanessa Williams.
Williams, the first African-American winner in the competition's history, had been forced to resign before the end of her year-long tenure after salacious photos of her surfaced in Penthouse magazine.
"I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less the Miss America you are and the Miss America you always will be,'' Haskell said at the ceremony.
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