Episode #102
EL PASO – YOU’RE LOOKING GOOD
THE PINK DRESS: A MEMOIR OF A RELUCTANT BEAUTY QUEEN
It’s a fabulous read that will move you to laughter as well as serious contemplation.
Growing up in West Texas, memoir author Jane Little Botkin didn’t have designs on becoming a 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.
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.