If this was so important to the locals - and I really don’t blame them for wanting a local woman to win - why wasn’t there a requirement that the contestants must be residents of the Virgin Islands?
Apparently a six-month residency, if only on paper, suffices. An apartment lease.
I once had an employee who was related to Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, Miss America, 1988.
Story was that Kaye Lani was working as a nurse in a Toledo hospital. She had tried and failed three times to win the Miss Ohio pageant.
She was 24, which is when you turn into a pumpkin in the pageant business. Staring at her last opportunity it dawned on her that the track record proved that it was impossible to win Miss Ohio unless you were a blonde.
Since Toledo borders Michigan she moved a couple miles north and entered their pageant. She won, and the rest is history.
So carpetbagging is not exactly new in this biz.