Photo Courtesy of Flickr
Kaitlyn Hart
Life Editor
Let’s face it, Pocatello is not exactly a “must-visit” on many people’s bucket lists.
Being that we’re just driving distance from such big cities like Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, and nowadays even Idaho Falls which seems to be growing faster and faster each day, it’s not hard to overlook our quaint little college town.
But what people don’t realize is that within the constraints of our small town, we have some pretty amazing people.
Pocatello, Idaho is not usually the first place that comes to mind when you think about the glitz and glam of the world of beauty pageants. Especially not an event as high-profile and world-renowned as the Miss America Pageant.
Dorthy Loretta Johnson LeVels was born in May of 1945 in Pocatello, Idaho. Her parents, Pompie and Nellie Johnson had moved to Idaho from Georgia years before and were the founding members of Pocatello’s oldest black church, Bethel Baptist.
According to multiple sources, including her official obituary, Dorthy was known to be “painfully shy.” Especially during her college years while she was attending Idaho State University and pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Education, she struggled to overcome her propensity to be very shy.
Her mother, ever worried about her daughter’s well-being, encouraged her to find something that would force her to conquer her tendency to be so cautious and timid around other people. This is when Dorthy decided to enter the Miss Idaho beauty pagaent, and won.
Important to note, this was a very tense time in American history. According to Dorthy’s obituary, “At the time of her selection, the United States was embroiled in racial tensions. Just one month before, the 1964 Civil Rights Act had just been signed and shortly afterward, three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. Tens of thousands of blacks in the South had yet to win the right to vote. Recognizing the irony of Dorthy’s remarkable achievement, one Time Magazine reporter was inspired to dub her “a pretty paradox.”
The years prior to Dorthy winning Miss Idaho, the winners were known to receive an expansive number of gifts as a reward for their winning such as clothes, and even the money to pay for your travel to the Miss USA competition, the next step after winning the role to represent your state.
But fearing for his daughter’s safety, Dorthy’s father originally refused to allow her to compete in the competition which would require her to travel across the country to Miami Beach, Florida. According to Dorthy’s obituary, “Pompie, however, did not want his sheltered daughter exposed to the indignities of Southern racism.”
After lots of debating and talking over the situation with Dorthy’s mother Nellie, Poppie decided that she would most likely face challenges because of her race wherever the competition was held, eventually giving Dorthy his blessing to compete for Miss USA, and gifting her with four perfectly fitting dresses to wear for the competition.
Only 19 years old, Dorthy traveled to Miami Beach to compete in the beauty pageant, making her the first African-American woman to compete in the pageant, as well as the first African-American semi-finalist in the pageant. But this title was not earned without strife. Although, according to Blackpast, she was “treated well in Miami”, it was to Dorthy’s surprise that she was the only contestant being followed so intensely by the press during her time in Florida. She later discovered that the white people were, “surprised to find out that she spoke fluent English and was not a foreigner.”
Photo Courtesy of Cornelison Funeral Home
Though she did not win the title of Miss USA, she was later invited to accept an offer as a summer intern at the Pentagon in Washington D.C, a prestigious position especially for young women at the time.
After her time in Washington D.C, she moved to Los Angeles, California, where she would become an award-winning educator, completing an impressive 40-year tenure. According to her obituary, “She received a Los Angeles Reading Association’s Teacher of the Year in 1992, was listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, and was nominated for the Disney Teacher of the Year Award in 2001.”
In her later years after she retired from teaching in 2009, Dorthy decided to explore more of her interests. This journey led her to a more artistic period in her life, where she founded her original card line, God’s Dot, (Dot is a nickname for Dorthy). According to her obituary, “The cards were treasured by friends and family who eagerly purchased them but were reluctant to part with them because of their unique beauty. She was also known for her skilled hand at calligraphy.”
Though she was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and told that she had nearly six months to live, Dorthy battled fearlessly and was able to fight for another 13 years, until her death in Los Angeles, California, on April 13th, 2017.
Dorthy Johnson LeVels continues to be an important part of the Pocatello community, and an inspiration to us all. She is a symbol of bravery, determination, and intelligence for all of us here in Pocatello and around the world.
Very good read! I had heard about her but this was more than I had known about her!