My Mom: Miss Missaukee at Mackinac
Timeline 2 of 3: June 26-27, 1958
Thursday morning, June 26, Faye met her escorts - Don and Norma
Iverson of Lake City - at the bus station in Cadillac (school was
out, and Faye was living with her older sister Carole in Grand Rapids
for the summer). First they went to Lake City to pick up the
brand-new 1958 white convertible that had been specially provided by
the Oldsmobile Company for the Mackinaw Bridge dedication - complete
with custom decals. Mom felt pretty special when she saw that; she
says, "We Falmouth people did not have expensive cars!" There was a
"send-off" for Faye at the annual flower show in Lake City, and
apparently she got to pick the winner in a jackpot drawing there.
From there they went up to Petoskey, where they had dinner. Later
that evening they toured Mackinaw City, and saw some friends in St.
Ignace. Then north again, to the Sou Engineering College campus in
Sault Ste. Marie*. Faye and Mrs. Iverson
stayed there at Brady Hall; Miss Monroe County (Margaret Steed) and
her chaperone shared the room with them (Faye said they were too
excited to sleep very well that night). Meanwhile, Mr. Iverson had to
go back south to his sleeping quarters at Camp Kinross, where all the
convertibles were washed, refueled, and stored in hangars for the
night.
*Pronounced "soo saint
muh-REE", which I believe is French for "the Falls (or Rapids) of
St. Mary".
On Friday morning, June 27, there was to be a parade in Sault Ste.
Marie, Ontario (across the St. Mary's River from Sault Ste. Marie,
Michigan). At the time, there was no bridge there, and the car
ferries had a capacity of 19 vehicles. So 19 of the drivers at
Kinross went up to Sault Ste. Marie, where they picked up not only
their wives and county queens, but also one other queen and her
chaperone (apparently not all the queens had arrived at that point).
Faye and Mrs. Iverson rode with Miss Keweenaw County and her
entourage. They had breakfast at the Windsor Hotel, where each queen
was presented with a souvenir Canadian silver dollar. Below is the
cover of the folder in which the coin was enclosed.
The image shows a ship going through the "Soo Locks", which allow
passage between the lakes Superior and Huron. Below are scans of the
front and back of the coin:
Afterwards they paraded through the city, and went back across to
Michigan. There they ate lunch and had formal pictures taken
(below).
That was taken on the college campus in Sault Ste. Marie. Below
are some details from that photo:
Faye says that was a second-hand dress that her sister Carole
helped her find in the Grand Rapids newspaper. I'll let her describe
what happened after Sault Ste. Marie:
During these parades, the cars were lined up alphabetically by
county. The convertible tops would be down, and the queens would sit
on the top part of the back seat, while the chaperone was in the
front next to her husband. At the end of each parade route, the
drivers would pull over and put the tops up, so the cars could
proceed at highway speed to the next venue. Note in the description
below (from the official itinerary) how "highway speed" was
defined:
(I found that interesting for another reason: Interstate
75 was extended through the area within a year or two, and since
then all of these old highways have changed. Today US
23 and US
31 both end at interchanges south of Mackinaw City, so neither
one actually goes through the town anymore. There is a
Michigan highway 27 that still serves Cheboygan today, but
back in 1958, that was US highway 27. US
27 was truncated at an interchange near Grayling in 1962, and
in 2002 the entire designation within Michigan is scheduled to be
completely replaced by US
127.)
Anyway, after the parade through Cheboygan, the queens arrived at
the Armory for dinner. This was the ticket to the event:
Here's Faye again, describing the proceedings:
Afterwards the motorcade went back up to Sault Ste. Marie, where
the drivers once again dropped off the ladies. Faye says they arrived
at midnight; she and Miss Monroe washed their wind-blown hair and
finally retired for the night at 1:30 am. This time, they slept
soundly!
Whew - all that... and the really "big day" was yet to
come! Click here...
Page created 06 May 2002; last updated 24 June
2002.
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