Lynnette Cole

After winning Miss Tennessee USA Cole competed for and won the title of Miss USA 2000, becoming the second Hispanic woman to win Miss USA after Laura Harring in 1985. Cole went on to compete at the Miss Universe pageant, held in Nicosia, Cyprus later that year. Her performance was enough to secure her a spot among the five finalists, and brought the U.S. back into the semifinals (after Kimberly Pressler had failed to advance the year before, breaking a streak of consecutive placements that had been going since 1977). She also placed fifth overall. She became the first woman to place in the top five at all three pageants and her record was not surpassed until 2006 by Tara Conner. This was the first time in the Miss Universe pageant history that two women of Puerto Rican heritage (Cole and Puerto Rico's Zoribel Fonalledas) participated at the same time representing different countries.

As Miss USA, Cole was a representative of the Miss Universe Organization. Her "sister" 2000 titleholders were Lara Dutta (Miss Universe, of India) and Jillian Parry (Miss Teen USA, of Pennsylvania).

Cole's first major pageant win came in 1995 when she won the title Miss Tennessee Teen USA. She was a top six finalist at the Miss Teen USA pageant in that year, and won the Miss Photogenic award, finishing fourth overall. Cole would later win the 1997 Miss Teen All American title.

Lynnette Marie Cole-O'Nan (née Cole; born February 9, 1978), won the title Miss Tennessee USA in 2000. She went on to become the first woman from that state to win the Miss USA pageant, which was held in Branson, Missouri on February 4, 2000.