The Illinois State Journal published head-shot photos of 13 Miss Springfield contestants the day of the local pageant. Buraldine Crumly’s photograph is far left in the top line. (Courtesy State Journal-Register)
Buraldine Crumly was the toast of Springfield in 1929.
Crumly, 19, a telephone operator, won the title of Miss Springfield in a hastily arranged beauty pageant on May 24, 1929. In Chicago the next day, she was named Miss Illinois. The whirlwind triumph qualified Crumly to compete in the Miss Universe “Pageant of Pulchritude” in June.
The Illinois State Journal sponsored the local competition, so Crumly’s titles were one of Springfield’s biggest stories of 1929. The ballyhoo started the evening of the Springfield competition, held at the Lincoln Theatre. Fourteen young women entered what essentially was a swimsuit pageant.
With only a few days in which to arrange the contest, the event caught the popular fancy, and the entire program was broadcast over station WCBS by Harry Wagner, popular Lincoln theatre organist, who acted as master of ceremonies. …
“I am so excited I don’t know what to say,” the petite little blond girl said in response to a request from Mr. Wagner to say something into the microphone for the radio audience. “I thank all of you and I hope that the Chicago audience will be as kind as you have been tonight.”
Crumly in an S.A. Barker ad (SJ-R)
Miss Crumly wore a bathing suit of red and white which set off her youthful figure to perfection. All contestants were attired in bathing suits and the varied hues of the garments made a pretty picture as … each one paraded on the runway for edification of the audience. Organist Wagner kept things moving by a constant running fire of witty comment, and his musical selections for each girl were unusually appropriate.
The girl who will represent Springfield in the state contest tonight is employed as a toll operator for the Illinois Bell Telephone company. She is only a little past 18 years old. Her hair is decidedly blond in tint, and she has expressive blue eyes, is 5 feet 2 inches in height and weighs 108 pounds.
Crumly, accompanied by a cousin as chaperone, boarded a train for Chicago the next day.
The pretty Springfield girl …, although she was compelled to go to Chicago on short notice, went well prepared. Through the courtesy of S.A. Barker company, the local girl appeared in a beautiful white bathing suit, trimmed in red coin dots. The suit has the new sun-tan back and is cut to the waist. Her anklet hose had a red border to match the coin dots in the bathing suit. Her shoes were white, short vamp step-in pumps, with a cutout design on the toes.
S.A. Barker – repaid, presumably, by free State Journal publicity – also gave Crumly a dress and hat as her travel outfit.
The Miss Illinois pageant was held at the Merry Garden ballroom in Chicago on May 25. Crumly defeated 11 other contestants to win the title.
“I’m tired and happy,” Crumly told the Journal in a phone interview from Chicago. “It has been so wonderful that I am not sure that I am able to appreciate all of it.”
Crumly’s triumphant return to Springfield took up most of the Journal’s photo page on May 28. (SJ-R)
Springfield celebrated Crumly’s return home on Monday, May 27, with a parade, appearances before the Illinois House and Senate, and personal greetings from both Mayor J. Emil Smith and Gov. Louis Emmerson. Several thousand people greeted her at the Chicago & Alton (today’s Amtrak) station, and thousands more viewed a downtown motorcade.
“Chicago residents … were loud in their praises of the Springfield girl,” the Journal story said, “but it remained for her to return home to learn just how much Springfield people think of her.”
Crumly didn’t place in the “Pageant of Pulchritude,” held in Galveston, Texas, June 11. (Miss Austria, Lisl Goldarbeiter, was named Miss Universe.) But she enjoyed her local fame for several weeks more, talking to civic clubs and making a variety of personal appearances.
Injured but still cheerful, Daykin survived a natural gas explosion in 1989. (Sj-R)
However, Crumly (1911-96) remained a “Miss” for only a year after her state and local championships. Crumly married Deane Daykin (1908-69) on May 29, 1930.
Buraldine Daykin went on to work for the city of Springfield for 28 years, including 20 years as city clerk, then an appointive post.
She made news again at age 78 in 1989, when a natural gas explosion wrecked her home on Whittier Avenue. Daykin suffered burns in the blast.
Buraldine and Deane Daykin are buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery.
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