Jane Little Botkin is the author of the new book The Pink Dress: A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen. Her other books include The Girl Who Dared to Defy. She is based in New Mexico.
Q: What inspired you to write The Pink Dress?
A: I think I always longed to write The Pink Dress, but I couldn’t fully analyze and appreciate the past until my mother’s illness and death. A discussion with other writers at a writing conference in San Antonio in 2019 made me realize that I had a story others might appreciate. I actually signed a pledge to write the book on a bar napkin. (Wine always goes well with women and writing!)
Originally, I thought the book would be more about the origins of GuyRex, the “Kings of Beauty Pageants.” It was because of events involving my participation in both Miss Texas pageants (Miss America and Miss USA), that they were thrust into their fame, despite the tenor of political and social upheaval in the US at the time. Soon, however, I realized that the story involved my relationship with both parents in causing my rebellion with them and GuyRex.
And so, there are several layers within the book, and the one that involves my parents—their marriage difficulties, my mother’s and my relationship, and the forgiveness that comes often too late—was especially difficult to write.
Still, as a Western historian and biographer, I was able to step back and look at the story as it was set during America’s counterculture. I needed to view myself as a third person, devoid of emotion. When Covid came along, and I couldn’t venture out to research for my other books, I finally faced the prospect of writing the memoir. I’m glad I did.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The dress is like a character within the memoir—its origin and near destruction affect my course in life, profoundly so. (I don’t want to give away anything!) The pink dress itself symbolizes the fairy tale dream that little girls envisioned, a princess dressed in a Cinderella gown.
Richard Guy and Rex Holt created a world of Oz for their contestants and clients. This notion of a fairy tale world is yet another layer within the book. In fact, “Oz” is written on their shared grave marker.
I thoroughly enjoyed writing the last scene when my granddaughter begs to try on the dress. Though her world will be different, there is still the universal appeal of a princess dress.
Q: The writer Johnny D. Boggs said of the book, “The Pink Dress isn't a beautiful walk down memory lane. It’s a wild ride through the turbulent 1970s, West Texas Style. Here she is, Janie Botkin, taking the town by storm.” What do you think of that description?
A: Johnny Boggs is pulling in the Western reader. Despite the fru-fru title (what men are drawn to a book titled The Pink Dress?), the memoir captures El Paso’s Wild West history and attitude. As I mentioned earlier, I had to look at the story within a historical context from the city’s early years of revolution to the 1970s social unrest, including that which was spreading on university campuses.
El Paso has an unusual history in that the city offered escape for runaways, beginning with outlaws, frontiersmen, etc. to the 1970s drug runners and other modern outlaws. This unique Western attitude affected my parents’ move to the city (my father, too, was in trouble).
GuyRex’s approach with later pageants and my personal story, both “Western do-overs”—are products of the El Paso setting. In addition, Juárez, Mexico, shares context within the memoir, as does Fort Worth and San Antonio. The book opens in Wimberley, Texas, and ends in Dripping Springs, Texas, though those towns are not named.
The GuyRex effect was phenomenal on a city that struggled to be of consequence in the state. The Miss El Paso, Miss Texas USA, and Miss USA-Universe pageants removed the provincial notion that El Paso was a little town in West Texas. GuyRex’s Miss USAs were dressed in Western dress when they represented the United States at Miss Universe pageant locations.
My entrance into this world, and GuyRex’s unusual approach to the El Paso pageant, turned the city upside down.
I’m pleased that male ARC readers love the book! Boggs did quip to me later that he couldn’t believe I revealed so much! He wouldn’t have blurbed the book if he hadn’t enjoyed it too.
Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: Simply put, it was cathartic. As far as what I hope readers gain from the book, I hope that younger readers are entertained; older readers, nostalgic; young women, schooled; and Western historians’ views, broadened.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I just finished research for The Breath of a Buffalo, a biography of Mary Ann Goodnight.
During a visit to the Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch House Museum several years ago, I inquired if there were any books on Mary Ann Goodnight. The docent in charge quipped, “No one has written a biography on Molly Goodnight, and besides, there is only a smidgeon of information!” Then she squeezed her index finger and thumb together, not realizing that her response to me would become a years-long challenge.
Mary’s story has never been told, though it was she, not her famous husband, whose continuing actions preserved the Southern American Bison herd from extinction. Charles Goodnight ordered the extermination of the bison within Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, in late 1877.
Several authors previously produced biographies on Charles Goodnight, including the most successful and accurate telling by J. Evetts Haley, a classic in western history and especially Texas history. In J. Evetts Haley’s Charles Goodnight, Cowman and Plainsman (1936), Mary Ann Goodnight’s portrait is sketched, albeit marginally.
Not surprising if one considers the decade in which Haley’s famous biography was written. Biopics of women were uncommon, and, besides, Charles Goodnight’s interview answers and essays for Haley focused mostly on anecdotal information and his well-known accomplishments on cattle trails and with the Texas Rangers—historically, masculine endeavors.
I plan to present Mary Ann Goodnight fully to readers.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Just that I truly appreciate your reading the book.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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