Gage died of heart failure after spending several weeks at a Sherman Oaks hospital on Tuesday, son Robert Kaminer said. Like Vanessa Williams and Carrie Prejean decades later, Gage's pageant scandal probably brought her more fame than if she had kept the crown. Born Mary Leona Gage in Texas, she appeared as Miss Maryland USA in the competition in Long Beach, Calif. Gage also lied about her age - telling pageant officials she was 21 when she was 18. She told reporters after winning that she didn't even have a boyfriend. "I want to wait until I'm 26 before I become seriously interested in the opposite sex," she said, according to the Baltimore Sun. Just a day later her story was exposed. She had been already married twice, both times at age 14 - the first was quickly annulled - and had her second child at 16, all forbidden for the resume of a pageant contestant. Gage said she was used to such secrets. She had hidden her first pregnancy from her strict Baptist mother for as long as she could.