To celebrate their 50th Anniversary in 1960, the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs initiated a Queen Pageant to be held annually in conjunction with their convention. Since then over 3,000 young women have crossed the State Pageant stage representing their counties, and more than 800 women participate locally each year. This makes the Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant the largest pageant system in Illinois. Former Contestants include Judi Ford (Boone County 1966, 1967 Miss Illinois County Fair) who was Miss America in 1969 and even Illinois' former First Lady, Brenda Edgar (Miss Union County and a state finalist). Our contestants have become teachers, doctors, mothers, broadcasters, artists, lawyers, local pageant directors and countless other professions - each has written her own success story.
The Pageant was the brain-child of Cliff Hunter and W.G. Colburn and originally meant to "help fill the seats at the Banquet" and "give the wives something to do" while the men tended to fair board business. How things have changed! The Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant has been featured in "Amusement Business" as well as many other publications. Further, it has been called "one of the best pageants in the country" by the Outdoor Amusement Association.
Viola (Hutmacher Suits) Palumbo, a former Miss Quincy who went on to become Miss Illinois in the Miss America pageant system, was recruited to direct the state pageant. She had been a professional singer around the Midwest, appeared on radio shows, and was also the state director of the Illinois Rural Cooperatives State Beauty Pageant. Realizing that a great pageant needed a top emcee, Viola called on Springfield WTAX radio broadcaster Bill Miller, for assistance. She relied on the assistance of a handful of others to help stage the first Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant, at the Illinois State Armory. Preliminaries for the forty contestants were held in the St. Nicholas Hotel and the queens were housed in the Governor Hotel. Until the move was made to the Holiday Inn East in 1978, shuttling the queens, gowns and all, became an annual task.
In the crowd of fifty contestants that first year at the Holiday Inn, was a young woman from Edgar County, Wendy (Morgan) Bell. Though not selected the state queen, like many other fair queens she went back to her local fair to help after retiring her crown. Bell found herself back in Springfield in 1985 after her marriage and visited Palumbo with an offer to help. Viola suggested she contact the Sangamon County Fair, and Wendy soon found herself as the local pageant director. Bell's initial job on the state crew was to register the former queens who returned each year. Wendy also became active in the Illinois Pageant Director's Association, where she served for three years as its' President. Her responsibilities grew until Viola announced her retirement and named Wendy her successor.
In 1994, the Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant celebrated 35 years and said farewell to Viola and Bill with a gala back where it all began, at the Illinois State Armory. Appropriately enough, the queen selected that year was from Adams County and lived in Quincy, Viola's hometown. There was a record seventy-one contestants that year.
The pageant and convention has grown to over 3,000 registrants. This necessitated the Pageant's move to the adjacent Crowne Plaza Hotel in 1996. A seventy-two foot stage is the centerpiece of the ballroom where 1,200 dinner guests anxiously await the announcement of the queen each year.
Selecting the queen is the job of a highly qualified panel of five judges. Contestants are interviewed, scored on Stage Presence, Beauty and Physique, and Commnication Skills during preliminary competition. Twelve finalists are named and five non-finalist awards are presented before dinner. The finalists start the process from scratch again after the banquet and add an on-stage interview. A first runner-up and second runner-up are designated before the new queen is named.
The Queen becomes a summer employee for the Illinois Department of Agriculture as the official hostess of the Illinois and DuQuoin State Fairs. Traveling almost every other day for ten weeks, she is an active promoter and spokesperson. Her schedule will include addressing the House and Senate during Agricultural/Legislative Day at the Capital and visiting about thirty county fairs. During the State Fair, past queens have had a wide variety of experiences including radio and TV interviews, pie-eating contests, cow milking contests, parades, meeting music superstars like Vince Gill and ZZ Top and special dignitaries such as Presidents Reagan and Bush.
The Illinois County Fair Queen will meet and greet tens of thousands of people in her 365 day reign. She represents each contestant, each visitor, and each volunteer at Illinois' 105 county fairs and two state fairs. The scope of her impact is immeasurable but we know it will be a positive presence of which all those associated with the Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant can be proud.