BEYOND SKIN DEEP
Through this annual throwback pageant, a wholesome — and married — delegate for the Topsfield Fair emerges
TOPSFIELD — Inside a small hall at the Topsfield Fair, just down the midway from the cow and pig barns and a stand selling fried Oreos, six women were gathered nervously backstage, waiting for the start of an avowedly oldfashioned competition: the 52nd annual Mrs. Essex County Pageant.
The rules are very clear. Competitors must be married. They must be at least 18 years of age. They must live in Essex County, and they must live with their husbands.
To win the pageant and the sparkly crown that comes with it, they will be judged on their general appearance, outgoing personality, poise, and cooking skills. This year, each woman had to bring a favorite Thanksgiving dessert.
It is not, the organizers stress over and over, a beauty pageant. So what is it, then? The most common explanation is that it’s a homemaker competition. Critics say that promotes a bygone concept of women. Proponents say that is exactly the point.
“It’s definitely not the 1950s image of a homemaker with an apron on, waiting for her husband to walk in the door from work with a highball in her hand and a roast in the oven,” said Priscilla Gerrard of Rockport, Mrs. Essex County 1998, who was one of a
‘I’ve always watched this pageant. It just means the world to me.’
LORI BURKE, the recently crowned Mrs. Essex County
dozen former winners in the audience on Sunday, all wearing their crowns.
“It’s evolved with the times, moving away from her looks to her attitude about things, and it’s evolved to represent the fair, because the chief goal of Mrs. Essex County is to represent what the fair stands for,” Gerrard added.
Indeed, the pageant began as
the Ms. Essex County Pageant, with swimsuits and the like. But in the early ‘70s, it switched to married women in an effort to better align with the founding ideas of the nation’s oldest agricultural fair, which was started by a handful of farm families in 1818.
Gerrard’s 42-year-old daughter, Meagan Shelton, said she is used to the eye rolls that come from her generation when they find out she followed in her mother’s footsteps and became Mrs. Essex County 2018. “But if you look at these women, you see educated women, many of them holding down full-time jobs while being pillars of the community. If you’re critical of that, I address it with humor and a smile.”
As this year’s pageant got underway, the six competitors — hailing from Saugus, Danvers, Topsfield, Ipswich, and Groveland — were escorted onstage one at a time, each wearing a formal gown and a visible anxiousness. Directly in front of them were the three judges, who had done the bulk of their work the previous day, when in private they judged the Thanksgiving desserts and conducted lengthy interviews with each woman.
As the contestants came to the stage, an announcer read a brief bio — hometown, kids — along with some highlights from their applications. Tina Smith of Groveland loves yoga and singing, while Amanda Bourgeois of Topsfield is an avid late-night snacker.
From there, the entire event of the public portion of the pageant was a single question, which the women did not know ahead of time. Organizers say this question, in front of a crowd (about 100 people attended the pageant), is designed to test their ability to think on their feet, for the winner will spend the next year doing all sorts of public and press appearances to promote the 11-day fair.
The question was: “Please tell us what makes you a whole lotta happy in your family,” and the women took turns speaking emotionally about those families, which made up most of the crowd.
While the judges tabulated their scores, there was a lengthy presentation about beekeeping and a speech from the reigning Mrs. Essex County, Laurie Berns of Peabody, who told the crowd, “Pursue your dreams no matter how old they become, no matter how old you become.”
The top prize ultimately went to Lori Burke, a 50-yearold nurse from Saugus who baked a pecan pie tart.
“I am looking forward to this more than you can imagine,” she told the audience after being crowned and draped with a sash declaring her Mrs. Essex County 2024. “I’ve always watched this pageant. It just means the world to me.”
At a reception following the pageant, the contestants and the “formers,” as previous winners are known, spoke earnestly of the honor and the values it represents. None of them were there for a gag; no one was there because “their friends had put them up to it.” Several competitors had entered before; several former winners lost for years before earning their crown.
That includes Berns, who first entered the pageant when she was 22, before she ultimately won 32 years later. As her reign ended with the crowning of Burke, she said she planned to carry on the tradition established by many former winners of becoming a lifelong volunteer. Many “formers” run key components of the fair or sit on the board.
“When people hear ‘pageant’ they think it’s about drawing attention to yourself,” Berns said. “But we do it so we can turn that attention back to the fair represents.”
And once a year, on the penultimate day of the fair, Berns will get to dust off her crown, put on her sash and a fancy dress, and walk the midway as heads turn and people whisper, “There goes Mrs. Essex County.”