The singer and former beauty queen died at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, after battling cancer.
She began appearing on television by the age of 12 and won local talent shows over the years.
She was the second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant.
And to freshen their ranks, they must recruit the youth of America.
Her unfiltered opinions about homosexuality were exposed in a controversial 1978 interview withPlayboymagazine.
Its a sin under the laws of God.
And sin is like leprosyit starts with just a little speck and you dont even notice or care.
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… My children attend a religious school, she added.
We were fighting religious bigotry.
Activists fighting for gay rights took their own measures when protesting against her views.
Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree, she sang in one commercial.
Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine!
With her face covered in the banana-flavored dessert,she was capturedsaying a prayer and breaking down.
Were praying for him to be delivered from his deviant lifestyle, Father, she said.
Sometimes you have to pay a price for what you believe is right.
