Generations of Josie Jones’ family cheered as she was crowned 2024 Monroe County Fair Princess. There in the audience, and never prouder, sat Ruby Glodyne Anderson.
The next thing she knew, 93-year-old Anderson was being escorted up on stage to stand under the lights with her 15-year-old great-granddaughter.
Anderson had been on a similar stage in 1947, when she was crowned the first-ever Monroe County Fair Queen. Had 77 years really passed since that tiara was placed on her head?
The memory made her smile. Her happiness for Josie made her smile brighter. “Our whole family was there, and that’s a few,” she said.
"I wish I had worn something a little fancier," Anderson told Josie as they walked together across the stage.
“I was so excited for her, so proud. She is the sweetest and kindest girl,” she said a few days after the June 29 fair queen and princess contest. “And then who would have thought they would have me go up on stage. I’ve got pictures of us up there.”
Anderson’s family has a newspaper photo of her taken in 1947 when then-local Farm Bureau president Lloyd McConnell crowned then 16-year-old Glodyne Payne the inaugural Monroe County Fair Queen at the conclusion of a program at Indiana University’s fieldhouse. The caption spells her name wrong: "Gloydene."
It wasn’t beauty, clothes, poise or talent that determined fair royalty in those early years. Farm Bureau members picked their favorite of six contestants by paper ballot in the weeks before the votes were tallied and the queen announced. There was no princess contest back then.
Anderson said two of her friends were entering the fair queen event so she decided she would as well. There were six contenders that first year.
“I thought I would give it a shot,” she said. “They didn’t base anything on beauty and things like that back then. Whoever got the most votes was queen. You got them from friends and family and whoever. They filled out a ballot and signed the form.”
She wore a white, floor-length dress she described as simple, with a bow at the neck and the waist that she already had for another occasion, which she can’t recall. “You didn’t just go out and buy a new dress back then,” she said.
“I remember how my heart was just pounding, and then they crowned me queen,” Anderson said. She was in 4-H and entered items in the baking and clothing category. “I’ve sewn all my life, ever since I could hold a needle in my hand,” she said.
Her seamstress skills came in handy when Josie returned home from a shopping trip to Greenwood with a light blue, sequin-covered gown for the contest. It had layers and flowed to the ground, but the princess competition requires the dress to be knee length.
Josie put on the dress and Anderson got out her sewing shears. “She tried it on several times before I got it just right,” she said. “I worried the whole time if I was making it even but it turned out great. I’ve got sequins all over the house.”
Every year since she was in third grade, Josie and her great-grandmother have created a sewing project to enter in the fair. This year, they made a Christmas stocking. "I did most of the stitching and she made sure I didn't mess it up," Josie said late Tuesday night. She was still at the fairgrounds after a long day of handing out ribbons to 4-H winners and posing for photos with kids.
Anderson has always been a part of Josie’s life. “She lives just 2 miles down the road from me. I’ve been with her since she was a baby.”
She was thrilled to see Josie, a 4-H member who shows sheep and cows, crowned fair queen princess. Next year, she’ll be old enough to enter the queen contest.
There’s no pressure from her great-grandmother to sign up. “That’s all up to her, she’ll decide what she wants to do.” If she enters, Anderson said she hopes to be there in case the dress needs altering.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
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