Beautiful memories
Salt River member is past Miss Kentucky REA
BARDSTOWN
It might be hard to imagine, but there was once a time when your local electric co-op’s annual meeting was more like a county fair, including beauty contests. And for one Salt River Electric consumer-member, that contest would take her further than she could have imagined.
At 90 years old, Dolores Oakley still carries herself with grace and beauty. Born in Bullitt County in 1934, Dolores, whose maiden name was Cornell, moved with her family to a farm in Nelson County near the end of World War II in 1945.
“My dad bought a farm here in Nelson County, and we left in the middle of the school year,” Dolores says. “It was during the war, and you couldn’t get things. So, we didn’t have indoor plumbing for about six to nine months.”
At Salt River’s annual meeting in the summer of 1952, Dolores, for reasons unknown to even her, entered the Miss Salt River REA Beauty Contest. And, to her surprise, she won the contest, moving on to the statewide REA pageant in September.
Dolores joined 21 other REA beauty contest winners in Louisville, where they prepared for the statewide contest and took part in a variety of activities, including radio and television appearances. The winners came together for a parade in Louisville on September 6, featured as part of that year’s state fair opening day festivities, held at the original fairgrounds in the horse show building. Dolores remembers one distinct aspect of that day.
Cornell returned to Bardstown after the competition and was welcomed by prominent community figures including Salt River General Manager J. S. Broaddus, left, Nelson County Judge R. Lee Beeler, Chamber President Ben T. Guthrie and Bardstown Mayor Frank Wilson. Photo: The Kentucky Standard
“It was hotter than heck,” she says with a laugh.
As the hours moved on, and the judges decided on a queen.
From the October 1952 issue of Rural Kentuckian: “They selected a bright-eyed brunette from Bardstown, Kentucky—lovely Miss Dolores Cornell, a girl who ‘didn’t think she would win.’”
Crowned Miss Kentucky REA, Dolores received a crown and trophy, a TV set and a trip to Los Angeles to compete in the national NRECA-sponsored event.
She traveled for the first time in an airplane, went on tours in Los Angeles, and visited the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub. She returned to Centre College soon after, meeting and marrying her future husband, John, just a few years later.
The former beauty queen did not keep her crown or sash: “I just have the pictures.”
And the memory.
ZACH EPPERSON is manager of communications at Salt River Electric. This article first appeared in Salt River News.
