Somewhere in Wilcox County, women in their sixties and seventies are digging through closets, past the Christmas decorations and tax returns from the Reagan administration, searching for that one photograph—the one where they’re seventeen, sash diagonal across their chest, tiara catching the Friday night lights. The school district has called them home.
This September, Wilcox County Schools announced what they’re calling a “new tradition,” though it reads more like a reunion for a very specific kind of royalty. The district is summoning its former Homecoming Queens from 1963 to 1979, inviting them to return to the field where they once waved from convertibles and accepted roses from nervous boys in letter jackets.
The school district is asking these women to dust off their memories and join this year’s court at halftime on September 26th. They’ll stand on the same field where they once reigned, now watching today’s TikTok obsessed 18-year-olds in sequined dresses claim their moment.
It’s a particular kind of nostalgia the district is mining here—one that assumes those four minutes at halftime in 1973 still shimmer bright enough to warrant a comeback tour. These women, now grandmothers and retirees, are being asked to step back into a spotlight that burned out when Nixon was still president.
The queens of the ’80s can start preparing now. Their moment is coming next year.
If you were a Wilcox County Homecoming Queen from that date range, please contact Mrs. Sharon Lavender to get more information. (lavendes@wilcoxcountyschools.org)
B.T. Clark
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
