Hide Article Text (OCR)
1974NewM exicoStateFairQueenMadeleine Gere begins her reignQueen Madeleine will reign with flairBy CHARIiOTTE BLACKTribune Sf*ff WriterIf you’re al ihe State Fair and an uncommonly pretty girl with a crazy leather “crown’1 on her hat smiles at you you'd better smile back.Should she try out, she wondered, with so little time to prepare?The 1974 State Fair Queen, Madeleine Gere of Los Alamos, will reign over the annual event, greet-rng visitors with her dazzling smile and presiding over official events, *She did, and she won. She then went on to represent Los Alamos County in state and national competitions, winning the New Mexico title that year and the national in 1969.SHF M AS ALSO selected as the State Fair Queen s second attendant that year, but couldn't compete for the title of Queen until she was 21.MADELEINE is very conscious of the responsibility this involves, and grateful for what she's already learned.“It certainly teaches you self-discipline, she points out.1 It’s a public relations job, selling rodeo la the public.There are a lot of misunderstandings about the spirt, and a lot the Queeo can do to dispel them.IT ALL BEGAN in 1966 when her family left the crowded Los Angeles area for the good life in New Mexico.They chose Los Alamos because of the excellent schools—with seven children to educate it WAS a consideration!They located in White Rock, a pleasant area with comfortable homes, exquisite mountain vistas, and space for the horses that Madeleine has loved since she was tiny.She graduated from Los Alamos High School and went on to a semester at the University of New Mexico but found sbe didn’t care for if.Last year sbe tried out for the County title again, won it again, and then went on to win the big one the title of State Fair Queen.“IT WAS just one of those things I never grew out of, she smiles. I always rode my friends' horses in California, but I never had one of my own until I came here.”She got into the rodeo business almost by accident. She got her first horse when she was 16—just two weeks before the Los Alamos County Fair and Rodeo.THE THRILLS won’t be over, even when the Fair closes. Madeleine will go on to Oklahoma City inDecember to compete for the prestigious title of Miss Rodeo America.If the pretty, green-eyed blonde wins she'll have an exciting year ahead of her.She'll have a social director to help her keep track of commitments, the opportunity later on to enter such glamourous fields as modeling.And there’ll be a year of traveling, Hying around the country to advance the good name of the sport that is rodeo.„ MADELEINE’S PARENTS, she says, have been too busy raising kids and horses to have many hobbies, but the entire family loves to ski and swim.Her mother, an excellent seamstress, makes all of her rodeo clothes, some of them fo designs prepared by her older sister Lisa, a ballet dancer.Her step-father, the retired former owner of a plastics manufacturing company, is looking forward Id working the ranch that they have just purchased in Bend, Ore. There they’ll grow experimental crops, some of them bydroponicaily.BOTH have traveled about the state with Madeleine providing her with companionship and helping with such things as saddling her horse.“I just couldn't have done it without them, shesays softly.As practical as she is pretty, Madeleine is looking towards a career in real estate—if she doesn’t win the national title, that is.“But I just can’t plan anything until this year is over,” she grins.
Newspaper Details
Albuquerque Tribune
Albuquerque, New Mexico, US
Wed, Sep 11, 1974
Page 49
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 26 Aug 2020
Other Publications Near Albuquerque, New Mexico
Industrial Advertiser and Weekly News
Albuquerque Tribune
Albuquerque Daily Journal
Albuquerque Weekly Journal
Albuquerque Journal
