Louise Stansbery's Great Adventure, Part 4

by Glenn N. Holliman

Louise Stansberry's Great Cuban Adventure of 1935!

Our series continues....

It was the adventure of a lifetime for the 20 year old young lady from Bristol, Tennessee. For a week, she represented WOPI of Bristol in an international beauty contest for the International Radio Club.  

Below, Louise Stansbery in 1935.

     

After a busy two days in Miami, the group of 24 'girls', almost all blondes and over 60 convention goers traveled by ship to Havana.  A police escort met the group, and with sirens blaring guided them to the convention hotel, the famous National Hotel of Havana.



For whirl-wind three days, the young ladies were wined and dined and toured the city

This was a beauty contest after all.  In sessions, the ladies were judged on beauty and personality, including a swim suit competition, but a rather modest one as the news picture below illustrates.

 

Above, a menu from the Havana Plaza Hotel

With her strong East Tennessee Methodist upbringing, Louise had been taught that intoxicating beverages were sinful. (Her late grandfather, G.W. Osborne, had been ordained a Methodist minister in Sutherland, North Carolina in the 1870s.) Although constantly offered alcoholic beverages on the trip, she must have refused indulging. Note the personal note from one Hayden R. Evans below!

Left and right a program and pictures of a luncheon.                                                                                                                                                                 Newspaper coverage was extensive as the business community of Cuba desired greatly to encourage tourism.

 Below, more newspaper coverage from Havana. 

There were parties, there were tours and there were dinners.  But behind this life on the high side, Cuba was dealing with poverty and political unrest....and that intruded on their time in Havana...next posting, a rebel bomb and a change of presidents!

 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.