Beauty pageants featuring older women have never received much attention, but the first
Mrs. Golden America Pageant, featuring
Baby Boomer Women was featured on ABC’s
Good Morning America the day of the show – Saturday, October 29, 2005. It was a big day for
Kathleen LeSage, who came up with the idea for the competition and acted as director.
The show went on in Fort Myers, Florida; just six days after a destructive female named Wilma blew through the area. But Wilma was not enough of a hurricane to stop this show, as 15 Baby Boomer Women took the stage to the music of recording artist, David Patrick Bryan and Jason and Nancy Weintraub of the Weintraub Duo.
They will still packed with energy from the morning performance on ABC, where in unison they shouted, “Good Morning America,” to the country and gave this new pageant for ladies over 50 national acclaim.
Director LeSage of Naples, who’s managed other pageants and has a background in marketing, created the contest “because there wasn’t a pageant for Baby Boomer women that focused on their substantial accomplishments.”
LeSage says she received 752 applications from all over the country. That group was winnowed down to 15 finalist based essays and phone interviews.
Ms. Golden American -
Joyce O'Brien, 55, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Along with the title she received a diamond solitaire necklace and a one-week vacation for two to New Life Hiking Spa, in Killington, Vermont.
Micki Shirar, age 60, the local contestant from Fort Myers Beach, was selected to announce the pageant and location on ABC. The television interview with Juju Chang via satellite from New York was held with LeSage and contestants Shirar and O’Brien.
The charity chosen by Ms. Golden America, Inc. to receive proceeds from the pageant is the
National Stroke Association. This donation will be made by the pageant in memory of the director's mother, Nancy Cullins. She passed away from a stroke on April 4, 2002 at the age of 60.
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