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Margaret (Gorman) Cahill 1905 - 1995

Margaret (Gorman) Cahill was born on August 18, 1905 in Washington D.C. United States, and died at age 90 years old on October 1, 1995 in Bowie, MD. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Margaret (Gorman) Cahill.

Margaret (Gorman) Cahill

August 18, 1905

Washington D.C., United States

October 1, 1995

Bowie, Maryland, United States

Female

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Margaret (Gorman) Cahill Margaret Cahill (1905 - 1995)

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Margaret (Gorman) Cahill's History: 1905 - 1995

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Introduction

Margaret (Gorman) Cahill's father was Michael J Gorman and her mother was Margaret C McCarthy. She had siblings John and Mary. When she was 4 years old, Margaret was living with her parents, Michael and Margaret, and Margaret's parents (her grandparents) in Washington, D.C. on Sackett Street. Also in the home were her siblings John and Mary. Her grandfather John McCarthy was a manager on a truck farm and her father Michael worked as a clerk for the federal government. A year before she became the first "Miss America", Margaret was still living in Washington D.C. but no longer with her maternal grandparents. In the house were her father, Michael, mother, Margaret, and siblings John, Elizabeth, William, and Margaret along with Estelle Henson, who was not related. Father Michael was still a clerk, as was Estelle Henson. She won the Miss America title when she was 16 and in high school. At the time, she was only 108 pounds and 5 feet, 1 inch tall. She competed twice more, which was allowed at the time, but never won again. Margaret married Victor Cahill in 1925, remaining married to him until he died in 1957. They didn't have children. She died on October 1, 1995 in Bowie, Maryland at the age of 90. See Margaret (Gorman) Cahill: Obituary
08/18

1905

Birthday

August 18, 1905

Birthdate

Washington D.C. United States

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Margaret was Caucasian.
Early Life & Education

Margaret graduated from Georgetown's Western High School and then graduated from Georgetown Visitation Convent.
Professional Career

Margaret was a socialite and enjoyed traveling.
Personal Life & Family

Margaret was the first Miss America in 1921. Previously, she had been "Inter-City Beauty, Amateur" and "The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America" as well as "Miss District of Columbia" at age 16. She volunteered with the Red Cross and at Providence and Georgetown University hospitals.
10/1

1995

Death

October 1, 1995

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Bowie, Maryland United States
Death location

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Obituary

MARGARET CAHILL, FIRST MISS AMERICA, DIES Published by the Washington Post by Claudia Levy on October 3, 1995 Margaret Gorman Cahill, 90, who won the first Miss America competition as a Washington schoolgirl and then retreated into private life, died of cardiac arrest and pneumonia Sunday at the Larkin Chase nursing home in Bowie. She was a lifelong resident of Washington. Cahill was a student at Georgetown's Western High School, now the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and a few days short of her 16th birthday in the summer of 1921 when a local newspaper nominated her to represent Washington in a national competition. It was being billed both as the Inter-City Beauty Contest and the Atlantic City Bathing Beauty Contest. She had won the D.C. bid without having to show up in person, after her photograph was plucked from hundreds mailed to the newspaper by Washington families. She learned the news when journalists tracked her down near her home. She was in a nearby park playing marbles, at which she excelled. She went to Atlantic City later that year and defeated a half-dozen other contestants, among them a New York City showgirl. She posed for photographers in a voluminous two-piece bathing suit with a skirt and wore dark stockings and laced slippers. Other contestants defied local beach ordinances by showing off their bare legs. The new Miss America had blue eyes, wore her hair in blond ringlets and was demure in a Mary Pickford kind of way. She was 5 feet 1 and weighed 108 pounds. She was to remain the smallest Miss America ever crowned and one of two from the District of Columbia. She brought home her prize, a silver urn that stood for years in her vestibule and a three-foot statue of a mermaid. She also got to meet President Warren G. Harding and his wife. But that was about as far as glory went, she later recalled. The Miss America contest, begun by the Avenue Hotelmen's Association as a gimmick to keep tourists coming to the boardwalk after Labor Day, struggled along for years and finally came into its own in the late 1930s. The winners started emerging as national icons and cashed in on the contest with scholarships and other prizes. They toured the country, earning thousands of dollars in personal appearance fees, and launched careers. But Cahill said the contest had not changed her life one whit. Even her high school failed to celebrate her achievement. Cahill said in a 1990 interview with The Washington Post that "nobody even cared outside of Atlantic City. It was a joke at school." She competed for the Miss America title two more times -- repeat bids were allowed in the early years -- but lost to Mary Campbell, a former Miss Ohio who held the title in 1922 and 1923. In the meantime, Margaret Gorman finished high school and then graduated from Georgetown Visitation Convent. She married Victor Cahill, a real estate broker, in 1925. They traveled the world, occasionally met movie stars and attended functions at country clubs. She volunteered with the Red Cross and at Providence and Georgetown University hospitals. They had no children. Margaret Cahill avoided publicity, saying she was bored by the obsession with Miss America contestants. In a rare interview in 1956, she said she had "never wanted to go on the stage or anything like that" after winning the contest. Her husband felt that the Miss America hoopla was "a lot of foolishness and should be forgotten," she said. "It's a wife's duty to bow to her husband's wishes." Three years after her husband died in 1957, Cahill returned to Atlantic City to attend a reunion of Miss Americas. She crowned that year's winner and was grand marshal of the parade. The Atlantic City Press Club gave her an award, by way of acknowledging how much the contest had drawn world attention to the seaside resort. She later was critical of pageant officials for not reimbursing her $1,500 in expenses and said she hated being stereotyped as a beauty queen. Elegant in old age, Cahill was a regular communicant at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Washington. She loved to attend Redskins games. She said that she continued to watch the annual Miss America Pageant on television, but confessed that it failed to hold her attention throughout the evening. "I just get tired of it and doze off in the chair," she said. Survivors include a brother, William L. Gorman, of Fort Myers, Fla.

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Margaret (Gorman) Cahill lived 17 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 90.

The average age of a Gorman family member is 73.

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2 Memories, Stories & Photos about Margaret

Kathy Pinna

2.74k+ favorites

09/17/2011

Margaret Gorman, First Miss America

The first Miss America (chosen Miss America 1921), Margaret (Gorman) Cahill, with Hudson Maxim, an inventor and chemist, (dressed as Neptune) at the Atlantic City Carnival in 1922.

When she won the title of Miss America, Margaret Gorman was 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighed 108 lbs.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Bain News Service

Date & Place: September 7, 1922 in Atlantic City, New Jersey USA

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AncientFaces

411 favorites

09/07/2022

101 years ago, almost to the day, Margaret (Gorman) Cahill was crowned the first Miss America. She is shown here the year after she won the crown with inventor and chemist Hudson Maxim dressed as "Neptune" at the Atlantic City Carnival.

Originally a "bathing beauty revue", the contest no longer features a swimsuit portion and less of the pageant is judged on appearance, and more on talent. Margaret, the first winner, would have agreed with the change. A high school student when she won, she once said: "I never cared to be Miss America. It wasn't my idea. I am so bored by it all. I really want to forget the whole thing."

She married in 1925 and remained married until her husband, Victor Cahill, died in 1957. Living in Washington D.C. until she passed away at the age of 90, she was a socialite and an intrepid traveler throughout her life. We remember Margaret and her place in history.

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09/07/2022

then why aren't there homely girls there?

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Margaret Gorman, Miss Washington DC 1921

Kathy Pinna

2.74k+ favorites

08/16/2011

Margaret Gorman, Miss Washington DC 1921

Margaret Gorman, wearing a bathing suit, in the "Miss Washington D C" pageant.She later won 1st prize beauty at the Atlantic City pageant and was "Miss America 1921". She was the "lightest Miss America at 108 pounds until 1949" - when Miss Arizona, 106 lbs, won.

From missamerica.org: "Margaret, along with other "Inter-City Beauties," arrived in Atlantic City and entered a new event: The "Inter-City Beauty" Contest. Judges and the public both scored the contest - each shared in 50 percent of the final score.

The amateur prize, the Watkins Trophy, was awarded to Margaret Gorman, Miss South Jersey, Kathryn M. Gearon placed second, receiving $100 in gold. A special professional prize, the Endicott Trophy, was awarded to Miss New York, silent film actress Virginia Lee.

An immediate hit with the crowds, the "Inter-City Beauties" were later judged head-to-head against two other "Beauty" winners in selected classes of the now famous Bather's Revue: an "amateur winner" from over two hundred local women and tourists, and a "professional winner," which included a field of eleven professional models and actresses. In this extravagant and much-hyped final event, Margaret Gorman won the Grand Prize: the Golden Mermaid trophy."

She later married Victor Cahill.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, by Bain News Service

Date & Place: September 13, 1921 in Atlantic City, New Jersey USA

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AncientFaces

411 favorites

07/02/2018

Leading up to the 4th, we're all thinking "beach" and "picnics". In 1921, it was bathing beauties - like Margaret who was Miss Washington D.C., then Miss America. Isn't she a cutie?

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