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 Kovack - the most famous Peach Queen ever.
In 1955, the 20-year-old from Flint was crowned with that title. This is a case, where we somewhat know what made the judges pick Nancy as the Peach Queen. The first is the judges themselves. According to the August 11, 1955 issue of The Romeo Observer Press, the people who evaluated the Peach Queen contest were Warren Simpson, Carl Larson, John Coppin, and Dr. Walter McBride. All were members of the Scarab artists club in Detroit.
They judged the contestants on poise, personality, ability to carry a conversation, and beauty. When the participants made their enterances, they had to walk a certain way. That same article described it as "the girls walked, bathed in spotlight, down the [Romeo High School] auditorium's center aisle. Pausing twice they turned in full view and continued forward to the stage."
Later on, Master of ceremonines Gerald McLean interviewed each of them about their future careers, interests, sports, and other conversational topics.
The second reason why Nancy won is her past expereince with pageants. By August 1955, Nancy had won three of them as Miss Page One of 1955 (a contest sponsored by the Detroit Newspaper Guild), Miss Babe Ruth, and Miss Flint. She was even rated number one in the Miss Talent division of the 1955 Miss Michigan contest. Sources also reported that she missed becoming Michigan's queen by one point. She would hold 8 beauty titles, including Peach Queen, during her pageant career.
The final reason is her intelligence and work. Nancy enrolled in the University of Michigan at 15 years old studying radio and television as a major. She graduated in spring 1955 when she was 19. In addition, she planned on working on two television programs for the station WJIM (currently WLNS) in Lansing next fall. I can imagine Nancy talking to Gerald about that during the Peach Queen pageant.
Given all of these parts, it's easy to see why Nancy took the Peach Queen crown. She is very beautiful and unique. The descriptions attached to her when she reigned over the 1955 Michigan Peach Festial were stately, tall, and dark-eyed. Additionally, her background in beauty contests as well as radio and television provided her the skills to perfect her poise, personality, and ability to carry a conversation. There is no doubt she impressed the judges with those assets right before the final decision.
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. Other Romeo Observer Press stories in August 1955 covered her patricipation in the Almont Centennial parade, attending a Tigers game, and her trip to Washington D.C. Her goal was distribute 50 peach pies - 25 of them were presented to various politicans including presidential aide Homer Gruenther, Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Benson, Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield, and Congressman Jesse P. Wolcott. President Eisenhower was sadly not there when she delivered the treat because he was in Colorado at the time. However, Nancy did meet his grandchildren; attend a luncheon at the National Press Club with I.D. Brent, president of the Michigan State Society; appear on a local television show; and dance with a United States Army captain under the stars.
After her time as Peach Queen, Nancy's career in the entertainment industry took off. The October 11, 1956 edition of The Romeo Observer Press announced that she was appearing on The Jackie Gleason Show with the June Taylor dancers. In September 1956, Nancy attended a wedding in New York, which prevented her from taking part in the coronation ceremonies for the Michigan Peach Festival that year. While out east, someone "suggested to her that it might be fun to go to the studio and watch the girls audition for the Gleason show."
Nancy agreed and soon decided to join the competition. Out of 600 aspirants, she was one of the 16 selected.
That marked the beginning of a lustrous career. Soon after, Nancy moved to Hollywood. In the 1960s, she appeared in films like Diary of a Madman with Vincent Price, The Outlaws is Coming with the Three Stooges; Frankie and Johnny with Elvis Presley, a man she turned down a date with years before; and most notably, Jason and the Argonauts as Medea. She also did a lot of television work including Batman as Queenie, Star Trek as Nona, and Bewitched as Clio Vanita and Sheila Sommers.
Unfortunately, not everything was glamorous for Nancy. In 1994, she sued her former bookkeeper and personal assistant Susan McDougal of forging checks and making unauthorized credit card payments worth $150,000. That lawsuit went on for years.
There's no doubt that Nancy had a wonderful and memorable career in Hollywood. She definitely used the skills that allowed her to win the Peach Queen pageant to make it big in Tinseltown. Romeo is proud to call her a Peach Queen.
To learn more about Nancy Kovack, 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, 1955 and 1956; The Romeo Observer, November 23, 1994, p.5-A; and Internet Movie Database