#102 Guest Author Jane Little Botkin

Rendezvous With A Writer Podcast

"EL PASO - YOU'RE LOOKING GOOD"
Hosts Jim Bell and Bobbi Jean Bell continue September's theme MAYHEM, MEMOIR, MURDER, and MEDALLION WINNER with memoir author Jane Little Botkin.
THE PINK DRESS: A MEMOIR OF A RELUCTANT BEAUTY QUEEN
Jane Little Botkin, former Miss El Paso Texas beauty queen and Guyrex Girl, reveals the realities of becoming the first protégé of “Kings of Beauty” Richard Guy and Rex Holt amid the 1970s counterculture movement. Her experiences launch “GuyRex” into Miss USA pageant history, even as her family falls apart and she struggles to leave the pageant world.

Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn’t have designs on becoming a beauty queen.

A pink, rose-covered gown, a Guyrex creation, symbolizes the fairy tale life that young women in Jane’s time imagined beauty queens had. Its near destruction exposes reality: the author’s failed relationship with her mother, and her parents’ failed relationship with one another. Weaving these narrative threads together is the Wild West notion that anything is possible, especially do-overs.
The Pink Dress awakens nostalgia for the 1960s and 1970s, the era’s conflicts and growth pains. A common expectation that women went to college to get “MRS” degrees; to find a husband and become a stay-at-home wife and mother; often prevailed. How does one swim upstream against this notion among feminist voices that protest “If You Want Meat, Go to a Butcher!” at beauty pageants, two flamboyant showmen, and a developing awareness of self? Torn between women’s traditional roles and what women could be, Guyrex Girls evolved, as did the author.
The Pink Dress: A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen released September 10, 2024 and we are so excited to TALK ABOUT IT!! It's a fabulous read that will move you to laughter as well as serious contemplation.
Hosts - Jim and Bobbi Jean Bell
Opening and Closing Music - Hot Texas courtesy of Alex Dormont and the Hot Texas Swing Band
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Aired September 12, 2024