Penny Thoughts: Their Beauty is Their Grace

Most of us are aware that as our annual homage to Christ’s Birthday, as “Christmas On the River”, approaches, we are blessed with a series of pageants for our young women from the various age groupings which they represent.  Some call them “beauty” pageants, but others offer some truly uncomplimentary designations depending upon the strange perceptions those folks utter.

From my view, nevertheless, these contests or pageants, add immeasurably to the growth of the contestants and to the self-image of our community, regardless of how some parents behave prior to and during these cavalcades.

As with every pageant of this kind we can trace the history of our COTR pageants all the way back to the Miss America Pageant.  That pageant was begun in 1921 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to promote tourism there after Labor Day.  The pageant has undergone many changes since its inception, including changes in attire, attitude, and intentions of the times.

There have been winners who were the object of anti-Semitism (Bess Myerson, the first and only Jew to have won), of minority backgrounds (Vanessa Williams, the first Black winner, who resigned after Penthouse Magazine announced it would publish some nude pictures of her), winners with disabilities and even tattoos.  The pageant became the object of derision in the 1960’s, when some women assailed it as a sexist competition without any merit.  And in 1951, the winner, Yolanda Betbeze, refused to compete in the swimsuit competition which caused the Catalina Swimwear Company to withdraw its sponsorship and begin the Miss USA competition, which was held for the first time in 1952, in Long Beach, California.

Needless to say, the Miss America Pageant has survived many changes and evolutions, not the least of which was the scandal in 2017 when three of the Pageant’s top officials resigned over some leaked emails which contained scurrilous comments about contestants.  And in 2018, Gretchen Carlson, the former FOX News Anchor and 1989 Miss America winner, became Chairman of the Miss America Organization.  She immediately did away with the swimsuit competition. 

My late mother, Ms. Nancy Hinson Ogden, served as Executive Vice-President of the Miss America Pageant for ten years and did nothing but gloat over its successes and positive influence on the contestants and their families.  “Arthur,” she once told me, “Everything they do lifts their image, their poise, and their grace.”  It is something I will never forget.

With all that as backdrop, we still can look to our modest COTR Pageants with a great deal of community pride.  Parents are supportive of their contestants and entire families express continuous encouragement for their sisters and daughters in these competitions.

But one might ask, what do these competitions really do for the participants?  What are the positive benefits they realize?   Clearly, it is more than the gowns their families either make or purchase for them.  And it is even more than the friendships they form during the competitions.  In large measure, it is due to such dedicated volunteer “coaches” like Ms. Laura Clements who works endless hours showing them how to walk the stage and exhibit their poise.  Then, too, it is more than the individual beauty each of them possesses in their own rights.

For me, it hearkens to the words my Mother shared with me, and I have paraphrased – no matter at what level they compete, their beauty is their grace.