The Romeo Peach Festival is four months away, and the Romeo Community Archives will be there this year to conduct oral histories about the cherished event.
Each participant will be given a sticker for sharing their memories of the festival. The 2024 Peach Queen Joanna Cowells wore said sticker after we interviewed her at last year's Peach Festival.
All interviews will be apart of the digital Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection. Each will contain the audio and transcript. We recently added Queen Joanna's interview to said digital collection.
Not only was Joanna Peach Queen in 2024, but she also was the runner-up in 2023. These informed her experiences as Peach Queen.
Growing up, Joanna always admired the Peach Queen, especially when watching her in the parades at the Peach Festival. When she turned 18, her parents encouraged her to try out and see what would happen. On her first attempt, she became the runner-up to that year's Peach Queen Ava LeMire, whom she developed a great friendship with. Joanna had such a great experience in her first year that she knew she wanted to go back and try again next year to see if she could hold the title as Queen. She also knew that previous Peach Queens like 2005's Jessica Foltz were runner-ups in the past, which increased her confidence. Joanna also added, "there was a few things, too, that I learned during my year as runner-up that I knew I would want to accomplish during my year as Peach Queen."
One of the things that Joanna wanted to do was to partner with a charity that supported families with children diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) - a type of childhood brain cancer that currently doesn't have a cure. During her time as runner-up in 2023, she met a kid who had that disease. This prompted her desire to support an organization that would help raise money for DIPG research.
When Joanna became Peach Queen the following year, she partnered with the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation, and she was able to raise over $1,000 during her reign. She mentioned that it was fulfilling experience because she learned more about "what they do throughout the year to raise money and how they support families too."
When Joanna won in 2023 and 2024, she explained that it was a surreal moment for her. She elaborated, "The first year when they called my name as runner-up, I was just over the moon excited to still be a part of this organization."
In her second year, when she was announced as Peach Queen, Joanna remembered that it was "a full circle moment and honestly very emotional," especially with Ava passing down the crown to her afterwards.
When we were talking, Queen Joanna said that her highlights of her reign involved meeting the people in the community. Her favorite moment came when she got to partner with the local firefighters, who were raising money. She participated in the dunk tank. And no, she didn't do it in her sash and tiara. She wore comfortable clothes for that. For dunking her in the tank, half the money went to the firefighters, and ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation received the other half.
When asked about how being a Peach Queen influenced her life, Joanna said that even though she grew up in Washington Township, she developed a deeper connection to the Romeo community and its people throughout her reign. She said that Romeo always felt like a family, but even more so now. She added that she can go into downtown and recognize the business owners. Even people from the street will say, “Oh, I remembered you as Peach Queen. We got a picture.”
It's those little things that made her reign as Peach Queen special.
We even discussed the Peach Queens' sisterhood. Since the Peach Queen goes back to 1931, Joanna said, "It definitely feels like you're a part of history."
In addition, Joanna was scheduled to chaperone the 2025 Peach Queen Olivia Lynn the day after our interview, and previous Peach Queens helped out with different events throughout the year. Through this, she gets to stay involved and connected "to a piece of Romeo history" through this sisterhood.
Since her time as Peach Queen, Joanna has gone back to Oakland University (OU) to study accounting. She worked as an intern for an accounting firm in Winter 2025. As of now, she's finishing up her final year at OU and plans on taking the CPA Exam to become a certified public accountant. She mentioned that she was going to start mentoring young girls in a group at her church in September and also added, "And just, who knows, maybe one of them will grow up and be a Peach Queen someday, too."
Before we ended our interview, I asked Queen Joanna about her advice for anybody looking to compete in future Peach Queen pagaents. She answered it with the following: "Yeah, I would say just go for it and just be yourself. When I went into it the first year, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know really what they were even necessarily looking for, like what kind of questions they were going to ask me in my interview. And I would say, go for it. Even if you're super nervous and super shy, and even if you don't win your first year, come back again and try again, because it's such a welcoming organization that you're not going to feel bad. They're not going to make you feel bad. If anything, it's just going to boost your confidence. And I would say just go in and just be yourself. The judges and interviewers, they're looking to get to know you as a person. And yeah, so even if it sounds cliché, just go in and be yourself and show them why you want to be the Peach Queen."
Perfect advice, especially for those competing in this year's Peach Queen pageant!
Queen Joanna and I had a great time talking about the Romeo Peach Festival and her experiences as the Peach Queen. The Romeo Community Archives looks forward to talking to more people about their memories of the Peach Festival and what it means to them at this year's festivities.
It doesn't matter if you're young or old. We want to hear all of the stories about the festival.
To check out the 2024 Peach Queen Joanna Cowells interview, you can go to the Romeo Community Archives online catalog. More will be uploaded in the near future.
If you're a former Peach Queen, member of the Peach Queen court, or a festival attendee and want to participate in the Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890. We can also conduct interivews outside of Romeo Peach Festival weekend if you feel more comfortable that way.
Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection, 2025