THE PINK DRESS:

A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen

By Jane Little Botkin

Memoir

Publisher: She Writes Press

Pages: 304

Publication Date: 9/10/24

Synopsis

Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn’t have designs on becoming a beauty queen. But not long after joining a pageant on a whim in college, she became the first protégé of El Paso’s Richard Guy and Rex Holt, known as the “Kings of Beauty”—just as the 1970’s counterculture movement began to take off.

A pink, rose-covered gown—a Guyrex creation—symbolizes the fairy tale life that young women in Jane’s time imagined beauty queens had. Its near destruction exposes reality: the author’s failed relationship with her mother, and her parents’ failed relationship with one another. Weaving these narrative threads together is the Wild West notion that anything is possible, especially do-overs.

The Pink Dress awakens nostalgia for the 1960s and 1970s, the era’s conflicts and growth pains. A common expectation that women went to college to get “MRS” degrees—to find a husband and become a stay-at-home wife and mother—often prevailed. How does one swim upstream against this notion among feminist voices that protest “If You Want Meat, Go to a Butcher!” at beauty pageants, two flamboyant showmen, and a developing awareness of self? Torn between women’s traditional roles and what women could be, Guyrex Girls evolved, as did the author.

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Praise

The memoir is an engaging time capsule of trendsetting southwestern beauty pageantry. A revealing look behind the glamour and illusion of beauty queens. ~Kirkus Reviews

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. —Johnny D. Boggs, nine-time Spur Award winner and author of upcoming books Longhorns East and Bloody Newton

About the Author

National award-winning author Jane Little Botkin melds personal narratives of American families, often with compelling stories of Western women. A member of Western Writers of America since 2017, Jane judges entries for the WWA’s prestigious Spur Award, reviews new releases and writes articles for various magazines. Her books have won numerous awards, including two Spur Awards, two Caroline Bancroft History Prizes, and the Barbara Sudler Award; she has also been a finalist for the Women Writing the West’s Willa Literary Award, High Plains Book Award, Oklahoma Book Award, and Foreword Review and Sarton Book awards, both in women’s studies. She is currently working on a biography of Mary Ann (Molly) Goodnight titled The Breath of a Buffalo, A Biography of Mary Ann Goodnight. A lifelong Texan, Jane said she had no idea Texas grew native trees until she moved from El Paso to Dripping Springs near Austin! Now, Jane blissfully escapes into her literary world in the remote White Mountain Wilderness near Nogal, New Mexico–a hop, skip, and a jump to El Paso. 

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