Louise Stansbery's Great Adventure, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

It was the greatest adventure of her 20 year old life - Louise Stansbery, daughter of Charles and Mayme Osborne Stansbery of Bristol, Tennessee, off to Florida and Cuba as a beauty pageant contestant in December 1935.  This is the third in a series of articles capturing her fantastic trip and the times in which this event occurred.

The headquarters building in Miami, Florida was the stately Columbus Hotel, now long gone but then one of the most prestigious facilities in south Florida. Photographs were taken and a fancy banquet was held by the sponsoring organization, the International Radio Club.

Below in the left photograph, but right in the picture is Louise in a stylish black and white outfit and right photograph, wearing a hat with what appears to be wires (netting?) protruding.  Another contestant, left picture, also stylishly outfitted, wears a white overcoat, suggesting an unusual cold wave.  Note the 1930s automobile on the right of the picture.

Left, the Columbus Hotel, built in 1926 and now replaced on Biscayne Bay, was the headquarters hotel and the site of the opening banquet.  As common at the time, Louise collected autographs of those at her table.  My mother, Geraldine Stansbery (1923) remembers that famed radio personality of the time, Lowell Thomas, described the pageant contestants as the 24 most beautiful blondes in America!

 

 The next day, it was off to Havana, Cuba on the P and O liner, the S.S. Florida for an overnight cruise.

 While on board, Louise was asked to pose for news photographers with three other contestants.  She is second from the left.

 There was the arrival in Cuba, captured in this newspaper photograph of the day.  The young ladies were placed in open touring cars and with a police escort driven to their hotel.

Next posting a whirl wind of tours, dinners and a turbulent political scene....

We invite you to rediscover your heritage at a Wilson, Greer, Wilcoxson, Osborne, Forrester, Adams and other families Forum, Saturday, 9 :30 am, July 19, 2014 in the community room of the Boone, North Carolina public library.  Sunday, July 20th is also the annual Wilson Homecoming at Sutherland United Methodist Church in Ashe County.

 In addition, a detailed family tree of the above families is growing at a MyFamily.com site. For details and schedule on the above event and web site, watch this space and/or contact glennhistory@gmail.com.  Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson are great, great grandparents of this writer.