Editing Lee Meriwether (section)

==Early life==

Meriwether was born in [[Los Angeles]], California, to Claudius Gregg Meriwether and Ethel Eve Mulligan. She has one brother, Don Brett Meriwether. She grew up in San Francisco after the family moved there from [[Phoenix, Arizona]]. She attended [[George Washington High School (San Francisco)|George Washington High School]], where one of her classmates was [[Johnny Mathis]]. She later attended [[City College of San Francisco]], where one of her classmates was fellow actor [[Bill Bixby]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bergman |first1=Julia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H-iKPb5rKzwC&q=bixby |title=City College of San Francisco: The Campus History Series |last2=Mathes |first2=Valerie Sherer |last3=White |first3=Austin |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4396-2526-2 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |page=X |language=en-us |access-date=2021-10-06}}</ref>

After winning Miss San Francisco, Meriwether won [[Miss California]] 1954,<ref name="mscahist">{{cite web |publisher=[[Miss California]] |title=Miss California History |url=http://www.misscalifornia.org/miss-california/history/ |access-date=August 21, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013082256/https://www.misscalifornia.org/miss-california/history/ |archive-date=October 13, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> then was crowned [[Miss America]] in 1955 with her recital of a [[John Millington Synge]] [[monologue]]. She then appeared that Sunday on ''[[What's My Line?]]'', hosted by [[John Charles Daly]] (who also emceed the pageant that year).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7WX18IhR4k | title=What's My Line? - Lee Meriwether; Alfred Hitchcock (Sep 12, 1954) | website=[[YouTube]] }}</ref> Following her reign as Miss America, she joined the ''[[Today (American TV program)|Today]]'' show.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://movies.nytimes.com/person/48556/Lee-Meriwether/biography| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102222807/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/48556/Lee-Meriwether/biography|url-status=dead| archive-date=November 2, 2012| department=Movies & TV Dept.| newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| first=Hal| last=Erickson| author-link=Hal Erickson (author)| year=2012| title=Lee Meriwether Biography| access-date=December 23, 2015}}</ref>

An August 1, 1956, international news [[wirephoto]] of Meriwether and [[Joe DiMaggio]] announced their engagement. According to DiMaggio biographer Richard Ben Cramer, however, it was a rumor started by [[Walter Winchell]].<ref name="cramer">{{cite book| last=Cramer| first=Richard Ben| title=Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life| pages=[https://archive.org/details/joedimaggioheros00cram/page/376 376–378]| publisher=Simon and Schuster| location=New York| date=May 2000| isbn=978-0-6848-5391-8| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/joedimaggioheros00cram/page/376}}</ref>