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Women of Woodland: Miss America Marion Bergeron

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     A life-long public speaker and supporter of the Miss America Pageant, Marion Bergeron still holds the crown as the youngest Miss America in history, winning at the age of 15 – 1/2.
     Miss Bergeron entered the contest as the winner of a local pageant as a way to get a stash of movie theater tickets for her and her sister. She didn’t know that she would actually win and it wasn’t so easy being such a young winner. She received many prizes including a car in which she couldn’t drive and a screen test from RKO Pictures which they rescinded due to her age. The crown that had been placed on her head was stolen from her room at the Ritz Carlton the very same night she earned it.
     Marion was a typical teenager from a typical family. Born and raised in West Haven, Connecticut, she attended a Catholic high school. Her father was a patrol man with the town police and her mother stayed home and took care of the house and kids and accompanied young Marion to the pageant as her chaperone.
     While Marion was blessed with blonde bombshell looks, she was quite an accomplished singer by the age of twelve and after winning the title of Miss America, she went on to perform professionally with the “Miss America Orchestra” as well as famous musicians such as Ozzie Nelson, Guy Lombardo and Rudy Vallee who she once labelled “an octopus.”
As an active representative of the Miss America pageant, Marion traveled with other winners raising money for the Boys and Girls Club of America. When she was home in Dayton, she volunteered for Kettering Medical Center, Hospice and other local civic organizations including serving as PTO president and a Girl Scout Leader.

Marion married Donald Ruhlman with whom she had three children. She became a widow in 1972. She remarried and soon found herself widowed again. In 1987, she married for a third time to Mr. Fred Setzer who made her a three-time widow in March of 2002. Marion died just seven months later in October of 2002. She had been known as the youngest winning Miss America and the oldest living Miss America.

     Marion Bergeron was was born on May 3, 1918 in West Haven, Connecticut and died on October 22, 2002 in Dayton, Ohio at the age of 84 from complications of leukemia. She is located in Section 123 Lot 11.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

Thoughts on December 21…

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mayan-calendarI took a little side tour on my Christmas shopping to share these thoughts:

Everything I had in mind to write this week went out the window starting last Friday afternoon.  Just like the rest of the nation – the rest of the world – my feelings have gone from shock to sadness to frustration and back to sadness.

Those of you that are getting to know me have by now realized that I am quite private on my political beliefs and my social beliefs.  I’ve gotten a little stronger in being able to talk about my spiritual beliefs – since in the past I have been rather shy talking or writing about them. Quite honestly, Newtown, Connecticut has changed my shyness forever.

All the hype about 12/21/12 has left many people wondering what that date really means.  Is it the end of the world? Did the Mayan’s truly predict that our civilization will die?  In a nutshell, I believe that the answer to that is yes.  But I am adding a few words to that phrase and change it to: “Our civilization, as we know it right now, will die.  A new one is emerging right before our very eyes.”

As we all know, sometimes it takes a tragedy in order for people to feel comfortable in their bonding.  It takes something horrific like children getting killed to give people the guts to speak how they really feel – to be able to show public emotion and sadness.  To cry with others they don’t even know.  To pray for others they have never met.  To send out loving thoughts to the parents and families that are enduring a pain that we can’t even fathom.

Is the world ending? Yes, I do believe it is.  The current world of meanness and death and destruction and pain is dying out.  I think it had to reach a crescendo before it settles down into the new way of life.  Just like many things in life, the bad energy built up and up and up and is now exploding its’ volcanic “badness” into oblivion.

It’s a scientific fact that we are all connected.   We share the energy on this place called Earth. It is now our choice for this energy to be “bad” energy or “good” energy.  I believe positive mojo is much easier to create than negative.  I believe that it is much easier to love than to hate.

It is none of my business how you live your life.  Not that I don’t care about your feelings – trust me, I do.  What I mean is whatever your view happens to be on the subject of politics, gun control, locking down schools, etc., is fine. Your view is your view whatever side you are on – and no doubt we will never all agree on everything…it’s the way of the world.

But there IS one thing we can agree on.  It’s quite simple, really.  No doubt this will make some of you feel uncomfortable – but I’m putting myself out there on this one because I totally believe from the bottom of my heart it is true: Just Love.  Teach love.  Live love.  Respect love.  Learn to love again.  Once you feel the love, the rest just falls in place: kindness, respect, thoughtfulness, mercy, compassion.  You don’t even have to be demonstrative about your love.  Your thoughts and loving energy will be enough to help fuel the world for the rebirth that it is going through.

Those of us that are parents know that the last few hours of labor are the hardest.  So is it for a world that is going through a rebirth.  It is painful.  It is agonizing.  It is also exhilarating and emotional.  Through the pain we feel the expectations of great things to come; of the life that will soon be coming, and how ours will never be the same.

No matter what our views are, I’m sure we all agree we want to love this earth.  We want to nurture it, take care of it and help it through the rebirthing process.  Just imagine this: when we all send out positive energy and love at the same time, a wonderful healing will start taking place. Just envision a life where we are all prayerful of each other; where we all show respect and kindness and love no matter what. Best of all, imagine all of us doing this not because the catalyst is a horrible tragedy, but that the catalyst is just simply and purely love.