BY BRADY RHOADES: Fifty eight years after she represented her city at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival as a beauty queen, Marie Whistler is returning.<\/p>\n

The Colorado resident has been asked to ride in the opening day parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready for anything!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It was 1960 when Whistler spent a weekend at the festival, shortly before getting her diploma as a member of the first graduating class of Bolsa Grande High.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

BY BRADY RHOADES: Fifty eight years after she represented her city at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival as a beauty queen, Marie Whistler is returning.<\/p>\n

The Colorado resident has been asked to ride in the opening day parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready for anything!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It was 1960 when Whistler spent a weekend at the festival, shortly before getting her diploma as a member of the first graduating class of Bolsa Grande High.<\/p>\n

The festival was in its early stages. Let\u2019s just say it didn\u2019t draw the estimated 300,000 that it does these days.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very small and very sweet and it was nice,\u201d said Whistler, 76.<\/p>\n

There were just five or six rides, and the net profit that year was a tidy $1,500.<\/p>\n

Who was the celebrity grand marshal?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were supposed to have Jayne Mansfield but she didn\u2019t show up,\u201d Whistler laughed.<\/p>\n

Her journey to the festival started when she entered the Miss Garden Grove contest.<\/p>\n

Her motive?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole idea of getting a new bathing suit was very appealing,\u201d she said. Traditionally, Miss Garden Grove and her court all received bathing suits<\/p>\n

On stage as one of 15 finalists, Whistler \u201cwas dreaming about going to the beach in my bathing suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

She finished as a runner-up.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s 60th annual Strawberry Festival will be held May 25-28 in downtown Garden Grove. Mickey Mouse is the celebrity grand marshal, and the theme is, \u201cSixty Years of Having Fun and Funding Charities.\u201d For more information, visit www.strawberryfestival.org.<\/p>\n

Whistler moved away from Garden Grove long ago. She now lives with her husband in Colorado Springs. They\u2019ve traveled the world together. She also takes mother-daughter trips with her daughter, Carie, checking off items on her bucket list, such as coming back to Orange County and enjoying Mrs. Knott\u2019s Chicken Dinner Restaurant at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm.<\/p>\n

The grandmother of two will arrive in her home-town next week. She still seems to have the energy and enthusiasm of an 18-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing is beyond anything I could have imagined,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the historical photo, Whistler is second from right.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY BRADY RHOADES: Fifty eight years after she represented her city at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival as a beauty queen, Marie Whistler is returning. The Colorado resident has been asked to ride in the opening day parade. \u201cI\u2019m ready for anything!\u201d she said. It was 1960 when Whistler spent a weekend at the festival, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":2096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5305],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4274,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions\/4274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}