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.

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.