Mrs. Winfield J. Daniels of Orinda who as Oakland's Fay Lanphier won the Miss America title in 1926, died yesterday in an Oakland hospital. She was 53.

Mrs. Daniels won the Miss California crown twice before being judged the most beautiful girl in the nation in Atlantic City, N.J. She was a 19-year-old secretary here when she was judged Miss America.

The blond, hazel-eyed girl started her career as Miss Alameda, although she made her home in Oakland.

She first won the Miss California title in 1924 and placed third in the natinal contest at Atlantic City that year. The next year she was chosen Miss California again and won the national contest in a walk-away.

BECOMES CELEBRITY
Mrs. Daniels became a national celebrity overnight traveling to New York in triumph in President Coolidge's special railway car, Constitution. Motorcycle officers escorted her car through Manhattan.

She was toasted at a round of parties by such celebrities as Rudolph Valentino, Mae Murray and Will Rogers.

Later she came West to appear in a motion picture, "The American Venus," the story of a Western girl who wins the Miss America title. She followed that with a role in a Laurel and Hardy movie.

TWICE MARRIED
She once estimated that she earned $50,000 on a 16-week personal appearance tour during the year she was Miss America.

Mrs. Daniels was first married to Sidney Speagle Jr. son of a wealthy Chicago furnature store owner. That marriage ended in divorce in six months. In 1930 she married Winfield J. Daniels, a Berkeley and San Jose book store operator, and settled down to a quiet life as a housewife.

Her home was at 17 Richard Drive, Orinda.

Besides her husband, Mrs. Daniels leaves two daughters, Mrs George Hagar and Miss Marilynn Daniels, her mother, Mrs. Emily Emery, two grandsons, four brothers and one sister.