Ramey was born in Ashland, Kentucky to John and Evalena Ramey. She later left Kentucky to work for the war effort in Washington, DC. Through her mother, Ramey was related to Country legend Loretta Lynn.
Pageants
She then won the Miss District of Columbia pageant and then became Miss America in 1944. She was the first Miss America to be photographed in color and also the first red-haired contestant to win the national title.
Career
She was wooed by Hollywood in 1947, but dissatisfied with show business, she returned home to her Eubank, Kentucky, tobacco farm in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Ramey became the first Miss America to run for public office, seeking a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. In the 1970s, Ramey successfully campaigned to save Over-the-Rhine, a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. The neighborhood was eventually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and her work led her to make an unsuccessful bid for a spot on the Cincinnati City Council. She was a tobacco farmer who, in 1999, unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit against the federal government for $300 billion for its anti-tobacco policies. She also was a write-in candidate for the 2000 presidential election. In April 2007, at age 82, Ramey confronted intruders who had entered a storage building on her Waynesburg, Kentucky farm where thieves had previously stolen equipment. She used a snub-nose.38 revolver to shoot out the tires on their pickup truck, then flagged down a car and had the driver call 911, holding the would-be thieves at gun-point until the sheriff arrived. "I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it", she said. "If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be six feet under by now."
Tributes
In 1944, a B-17 of the 15th Air Force, 301st bomb group was named the "Venus Ramey." This plane is reputed to be one of the longest-lived B-17s of the war, having flown over 150 missions and survived the war. It was later scrapped. There was also a B-24 Liberator bomber in the 454th bomb group named "MISS AMERICA '44" which flew 133 missions.
Personal life
She married Joseph Henry Murphy, Jr. in 1948; the couple later divorced. Ramey raised two sons, Joseph Henry "Hank" Murphy III and Martin Wallace "Wally" Murphy, who survive her. Ramey died in an Agoura Hills, California hospice on June 17, 2017 at the age of 92. Her funeral was held at a Science Hill, Kentucky funeral home on July 2, 2017 followed by burial at the Eubank Cemetery in Lincoln County, Kentucky.
