Imperial Valley press., 1929-06-13
DOROTHY MERRITT
WINS TITLE OF
VALLEY QUEEN
Huge Crowd Present At
Formal Opening of
Desert Plunge.

Approximately 5000 residents of
Ell Centre and Imperial Valley
chose Miss Dorothy Merritt, IA,
Central Union high school girl, as
Miss Imperial Valley for 1929 at
the formal opening of Kenyon IS
Desert Plunge last night.
The winner received practically
the unanimous approval of the en-
tire group Of spectators winning
the coveted honors and fame over a
field of 13 beautiful maidens of
the valley. She received a hand
some silver cup from the chamber
of commerce, the bathing suit she
wore and a season pass to the
plunge as rewards for her victory.
Miss Imperial Valley and the
winners Of the next three places
were all Ell Centre girls. Miss Hilda
Reynolds, Is, of T30 Comm ercial
street was second; Miss Clarice
Ferguson, Is, CT 1886 Hamilton street
was third and Miss Louise Brand
20, of 725 Orange street was fourth
Mr.. and Mrs. Fred Kenyon, own
ers of the pool donated the bathing
suit to the winner of the contest
and also the season tickets to all of
the winners. The Imperial Valley
Hardware company gave the. prize
to the second place victor, NJ. O..
King to the third place winner and
Johnson-Groene to the fourth place
The l3 beauties were Augmented
by Miss and "Missis' Junior
chamber of commerce who, while
finishing last in the contest, CON
desj jended to give exhibitions Of
fancy diving after the judging.
Their water exhibition was receiv-
ed with more applause than their
appearance on the patio during the
Judging.
Before the contest Mayor Will
liam Clements made a short address
to the crowd stating in part that
the general public of the valley
should support Kenyon's Desert
Plunge as it was welcome addi-
tion to the recreational facilities of
iilt immunity.
Following the address by the
mayor the contestants in the beauty
parade appeared on the patio indi-
vidually and then later in groups
of fours for the judging. One OF
each group was picked to enter the
finals. Miss Merritt received the
greatest applause throughout the
contest. The plunge management
had group of picked men and
women to judge the volume of ap-
plause and the awards were made
according to their judgment.
Baby Applauded
Those who appeared in the con
test were Eva Stallings, Gena Bib
bins, Madelyn Horton, Pauline
Hunt, Ada Bess Beynon, Theresa
Aikman, Helen Marable, Bessie
Strange, Francis Halbert and the
prize winners.
Little Louise Gene Bradshaw,
winner of the most popular baby
contest recently, was introduced to
the crowd after the contest and
drew the most applause of all.
The Desert Plunge was open all
day to visitors and according to
Mr.. and Mrs. Fred Kenyon more
than 10000 visited the show place
during the day. A number Of swim
ming races were held at various in
tervals and the winners participa
ted in the final race last night.
Winners of the swimming races
during the evening were James Nc
Cullen among the boys, Evelyn
Pope among the girls and F. NJ
Ferguson among the men. The racers
finished as follows:
Boys: James McCullen, j. W
Donald Yarnels.
Girls: Evelyn Pope, Ada Bess
Beynon, Pauline Hunt and Sue
Pope
Men: F. NJ. Ferguson, Herbert
Starr, Jack Lane and George
Rives.
The majority of city and county
officials as well as many business
and professional men and women of
the city attended the formal open,
ing of the plunge last night. Visit
ors from various sections of the