Janice McDonald

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Janice McDonald (born 1958) is a former Miss South Carolina USA. A native of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, she is the daughter of Dorothy McDonald and the late Weyman McDonald. Janice was a 20 year old senior at the University of South Carolina, majoring in broadcast journalism, when she won the title of Miss South Carolina USA in 1979. During her year as Miss South Carolina USA she competed in the Miss USA Pageant in Biloxi, Mississippi, and traveled throughout the state for appearances.

Near the end of her reign, the Miss Universe organization offered the operation of the Miss SC USA pageant to Janice and her family. Her sister, Paula McDonald Miles, accepted the offer and with the help of Janice and younger sister Anna McDonald Boyce, they accomplished the task. Their first winner, Shawn Weatherly, not only claimed the title of Miss USA, but also Miss Universe.

Janice went on to a career in broadcasting, working in Charleston and Savannah before landing a job at WTBS in Atlanta. She helped launch CNN2 - now CNN Headline News and traveled the world with CNN as a producer, writer, reporter and sometimes anchor. Nominated for 8 Emmys, she left CNN in 2001 to start the Atlanta-based J-Mac Productions. In addition to production work, Janice writes regularly for numerous magazines and newspapers, and she is a contributing editor to travelgirl magazine. Having visited all seven continents, her specialty is travel. Among her highlights: visiting Antarctica with the late Jacques Cousteau, planting trees in Ethiopia, building houses in Mongolia for Habitat for Humanity and sailing on a Viking ship in Iceland with a descendant of Leif Ericson.

She is still involved in her sister's pageant production. In addition to the Miss South Carolina USA pageant, Paula's RPM Productions now also handles the Miss North Carolina USA and Miss Louisiana USA Pageants. They have produced a total of four Miss USAs, two Miss Teen USAs, one Miss Universe and a Miss World.