History of the Crown: Miss Rodeo Alaska
The iconic Miss Rodeo Alaska Crown showcases the distinctive outline of our great state in addition to incorporating stars like those seen on our state flag.
The more distant history of our crown is somewhat unknown, as there was a lack of records and a decades-long hiatus in the program before it was restarted in 2014.
In 2014, a young lady was interested in becoming Miss Rodeo Alaska and reviving the program. In order to do that, she needed to be associated with another Miss Rodeo America state affiliate, participate in their pageant, and work with their National Director and other officials.
At the time, there were several other states with similar circumstances of trying to start or revive their programs and one incredible woman took many of them under her wing in order to make it happen. That incredible woman was none other than Miss Marjorie Murphy of Texas!
Many of the programs that Marjorie worked with did not yet have a state crown for their titleholder, so she took it upon herself to have a crown made for each of these programs that she worked with, and the young ladies representing those states were presented with their new crowns after participating in the Miss Rodeo Texas Pageant under their own state titles.
Unfortunately, although quite lovely, there was a bit of a “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” situation with the crown… The crown that was presented to Miss Rodeo Alaska 2014 was very large and overpowered whatever hat it sat upon, so once Raylah Holm took responsibility for the Miss Rodeo Alaska Program and Pageant in 2015, she had another crown built, modeled after the one commissioned by Marjorie. This crown had the opposite problem, of being too small, and was only about the size of a sash pin. The third crown was the right size, but it still had one more detail that wasn’t quite right… It was a pin-crown, and many young ladies did not want to damage their hats with the pins, so Miss Rodeo Alaska 2015 converted the crown from being a pin-crown, to being a magnetic crown instead!
After these modifications, the crown was just right, and it continues to be proudly worn atop the hat of Alaska’s First Lady of Rodeo!
-Kelsy Konkright, Miss Rodeo Alaska 2020-2021
See more at MissRodeoAmerica.com