Actress and beauty queen Ruth Hampton has died in Merriam, Kan., at age 74, it was reported Monday.
Hampton died Thursday of undisclosed causes, her son, Gregory Hampton Palmer, told the Los Angeles Times.
As a dancer, Regina Ruth Jane Hampton performed with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet and New York's Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, the Times said.
She was crowned Miss New Jersey in 1952 and relocated to Hollywood after the Miss USA pageant.
Among her films were the 1953 western "Law and Order" starring Ronald Reagan and Dorothy Malone and the 1954 comedy "Ricochet Romance" with Marjorie Main and Chill Wills.
She moved to Kansas in 1999 and at the time of her death was going by the name Rene Clary, the Times said.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
