Burwell won the title of Miss Minnesota USA and represented her state in the 1976 Miss USA pageant broadcast live from Niagara Falls in May that year, winning the title and becoming the first Miss USA from Minnesota in the history of the pageant [REF].
As the official representative of her country to the 1976 Miss Universe pageant in Hong Kong,[REF] Burwell would become the first Miss USA titleholder not to advance to the semifinal round of the Miss Universe pageant,[REF] which did not happen again until 1999 [REF].