Dairy Queen contestants of 1940 identified
Editor’s note: This story has been modified to correct the spelling of the surname Crosbie.
The chances of identifying even some of the young women in this week’s Mystery Photo, we figured, were pretty slim. However, we underestimated the memory of some of our readers and the extent of their personal archives.
Erma Breese Thomas, 90, not only recognized her sister, Mary Louise Breese Crosbie, in the picture; she had the original clipping from the Aug. 22, 1940, edition of The Washington Observer.
The seven – all from Washington County – were competing for the title of District Dairy Queen of the Dairymen’s Cooperative Sales Association. The event took place at the Pennsylvania Training School, Morganza.
Sarah Paxton Kenamond was selected Dairy Queen that day. She had grown up on the Paxton farm in McConnells Mills, Chartiers Township, and was also named National Dairy Queen that year, representing Penn State University. She graduated from the university in 1942 and worked for the Penn State Extension Service until her marriage in 1945 to Lewis Kenamond. She had three children, later taught high school home economics and lived in Mifflinburg. She died last February at 93.
Mary Louise Breese married Arnold Crosbie and lived in North Franklin Township. She worked as a secretary for Jessop Steel and was an Avon representative for 28 years. She died in 1989.
“We were farm girls,” sister Erma Thomas said. They were daughters of Leroy and Sylvia Breese. “We went to a one-room school in Prosperity.”
Betty Lewis was chosen winner in a similar contest sponsored by Guernsey breeders of the district. She was the daughter of Paul and Bessie Hazlett Lewis and lived on their farm off South Main Street Extension in Amwell Township. A graduate of Trinity High School in 1938, she and her husband, a university professor, had three children. According to her cousin, Gary Johnson, they are both now residing in an assisted living community in eastern Pennsylvania.
Look for another Mystery Photo in next Monday’s Observer-Reporter.