We are now two weeks away from the annual Romeo Peach Festival, so let's continue celebrating the Peach Queens of the past!
Today, we'll talk about Nancy Seeman. In 1953, the 18-year-old from Utica was crowned with the Peach Queen title for that year. Unlike our last post, we actually know what the criteria were in choosing a winner. According to the August 13, 1953 issue of The Romeo Observer, the judges selected the winning contestants based on beauty, personality, intelligence, and character. Looking at this week's photo, it's not hard to see why Nancy became the Peach Queen. She is definitely beautiful and would charm people with her smile. The article also pointed out that she enjoys singing, dancing, and basketball as well as that she works as a secretary for a reservation manager of an airline company with her goal of becoming an airline hostess. In addition, it discussed how each contestant was asked the question of why they want to become the Peach Queen even though it doesn't list what Nancy herself said. Nevertheless, it's still clear of why Nancy won that title in 1953
Like the other Peach Queens before her, Nancy carried out her duties to represent local peach harvests and to bring attention to orchards and the Peach Festival. She traveled to Detroit to present peaches to Mayor Albert E. Cobo and to Washington D.C. to give the same fruit to Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson. She was going to do the same thing for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, but he was out of town at the time. Additionaly, along with her appearances on radio and on the Motor City Speedway, she appeared on the local Detroit talk show "Pat 'n' Johnny" and on the national one "Jerry and Jimma." Since many people had television sets in their homes at the time, this became the best way to bring attention to the festival on a local and national scale.
Even though 1953 was a good year for the Peach Festival, the Village of Romeo experienced a tragedy with a local orchard. On February 2, 1953, a flash fire completely destroyed a barn and its contents at the Hillcrest Orchard Farms located one mile west of Romeo. According to the February 5 edition of The Romeo Observer, the Romeo Fire Department and various local residents were only able to save heavy equipment like tractors. Luckily, no livestock resided in that barn. Sadly, there was no determined cause of the fire. This made it all the more important to bring attention to what orchards the Romeo area had to a wider audience.
To learn more about Nancy Seeman, other Peach Queens, and the Peach Festival in general, you can locate the Romeo Peach Festival Collection here and/or contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org to see said collection in person.
Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Romeo Peach Festival Collection, 1953