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.
