By BETTY DOBROWOLSKI
Folks turned out last week for the California Rodeo in Salinas, but Grace Miguelgorry has fond memories of a rodeo long past. Her eyes sparkle and her face lights up as she retrieves newspaper clippings from the bottom of an old cedar chest, along with a 64-year-old sepia photograph of a beautiful young cowgirl sitting on a corral fence.
"In 1932," Miguelgorry says, "I was Miss Sunnyvale at the 21st annual rodeo in Salinas."
Now 89, Miguelgorry was a hardware store clerk with good looks, curly brown hair, a dazzling smile and a bouncy personality when she caught the eye of customer Edward Bradshaw, editor of the Sunnyvale Standard. He asked her to represent the Chamber of Commerce at that year's rodeo.
Without hesitation Miguelgorry asked, "What do I have to do?"
"You'll be in a group called Sweethearts of the California Rodeo," Bradshaw told her. At each opening ceremony, the Sweethearts will march around the ring and enthusiastically welcome the crowd. You'll also be our entrant in the Finest Outdoor Girl in California contest. The chamber will give you a cowgirl outfit, provide a chaperone and pay all expenses. Just wave your hat and give 'em a big smile, Grace, and you'll be OK."
On July 20, 1932, Miguelgorry joined young ladies from all over Northern California to parade before the clapping, cheering rodeo crowd in Salinas, along with frolicking clowns and cowboys and cowgirls on horseback.
After the parade, Miguelgorry recalls, the Sweethearts were told to stay with their chaperones and remain on rodeo grounds.
"In those days," she chuckles, "we were reminded to be proper young ladies."
Miguelgorry says she was nervous when called to compete in the Finest Outdoor Girl contest.
"I tossed my hat off with a flourish, twirled my lasso, jumped in and out of the circle, and gave 'em a big smile," she adds. "Dorothy Barbee of King City won the title, but I had fun, anyway. Gov. James Rolf presented Dorothy with the winner's ring, and she rode a horse at the front of the Sweethearts parade."
For Miguelgorry, being in the rodeo was "swell." Her picture was in the Sunnyvale Standard, and she was the darling of the hardware store when she got back home.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 24, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.