Évelyne von Kupp

**Évelyne Geneviève Charlotte von Kupp** (née **Rolischburg**; 15 January 1930 – 10 August 2023) was a Maronan television personality, businesswoman, and former model and beauty pageant titleholder who served as the president of the Miss Marone Committee from 1964 until her resignation in 2009.

Born and raised in the small town of Anterskofen in Charlotte, Kupp completed her education in 1947, graduating as a cosmetologist and makeup artist. She subsequently moved to Delmas to pursue a career in fashion, modeling, and beauty, but saw little success. After returning to Charlotte the following year, Kupp was crowned Miss Deurte 1948 and later Miss Charlotte 1948, going on to compete in Miss Marone 1949. After completing her reign, Kupp relocated to Delmas once again, and began a career as a professional model and makeup artist.

In 1959, Kupp joined the Miss Marone Committee as the secretary to the president – her husband, Emeric Gatos – whom had purchased the pageant in 1950. Following the death of Gatos in 1964, Kupp became his successor as the new president of the Miss Marone Committee, the first woman to serve in the position. As the organization's president, Kupp became the public face of the pageant, serving as its cohost every year. Additionally, she is credited with revolutionizing the pageant and turning it into a pop culture phenomenon, particularly after negotiating a deal with TM1 to begin broadcasting the pageant on live television beginning in 1966.

Kupp resigned from her position as president in 2009, amidst controversy regarding her support for restrictive eligibility rules which barred women from participating in Miss Marone if they had tattoos, piercings, or had participated in photoshoots deemed too suggestive by the committee. She was replaced by Élisabeth Desjardins as the president, but remained affiliated with the organization until the following year, when she officially severed ties.

## Early life and education

Kupp was born on 15 January 1930 in Anterskofen, a small town in the department of Deurte, to parents Matthias (1905–1986) and Josefine Rolischburg (née *Müller*; 1906–1998). Her father was a silver miner, while her mother was a homemaker, and the family was working-class. Kupp is the eldest of eleven children; her siblings include Arnaud (1932–2009), Élisabeth (1933–2019), Celestine (born 1935), Axel (1937–1978), Sophie (born 1939), Barbara (born 1940), Édouard (1942–1944), Franck (born 1945), Jacques (1946–1989), and Anne-Marie (born 1949).

Kupp began her education in 1935, attending a public, primary school in Anterskofen. Her native language was Charlotte Lungarian, and she only learned Maronan after beginning her schooling. Kupp later graduated in 1942, and completed *collège* as well in 1945. She later moved to La Menelle to enroll in a vocational *lycée* studying cosmetology, from which she graduated in 1947.

## Career

### Pageant titleholder and early career (1947–1958)

After completing her secondary education in 1947, Kupp moved to Delmas in June 1947, order to begin a career in the fashion, beauty, and modeling industry. Despite wanting to work in the entertainment industry, Kupp was not hired due to her lack of connections and experience, and struggled with breaking into the modeling industry and finding representation. She found work as a makeup counter girl at a department store, but found the job unfulfilling and did not enjoy interacting with customers. After four months of living in Delmas, Kupp returned to her hometown in November 1947, and began to assist her mother with cooking and childcare.

In August 1948, Kupp registered for the Miss Deurte 1948 pageant, after having heard an advertisement for registrations on the radio. She went on to win the title the following month, which qualified her to compete in Miss Charlotte 1948, held in October 1948. Kupp went on to win the Miss Charlotte title as well, which qualified her to compete in Miss Marone 1949. Miss Marone was held in Delmas in December 1949, although she failed to place in the competition.

After completing her reign as Miss Charlotte 1948 in September 1949, Kupp relocated once again to Delmas. After returning in Delmas, Kupp legally changed her name from Évelyne Rolischburg to Évelyne von Kupp, in order to give herself the appearance of a Lungarian noblewoman. She had initially petitioned to change her name to Évelyne de Lungarie, but was rejected as Maronan law forbids individuals from adopting the *de* particle in their surnames unless they belong to a noble house. This time, Kupp succeeded in finding work as a makeup artist in the entertainment industry, working for TM1 television and film productions. She also began working as both a print and runway model, although she retired from her modeling career after becoming pregnant with her first child in 1950. She left her career as a makeup artist in 1953, in order to become a full-time homemaker and mother.

### Miss Marone Committee (1959–2010)

Kupp returned to the workforce in 1959, after she was hired as the secretary to the president of the Miss Marone Committee. At the time, the president was her husband – Emeric Gatos. Gatos had purchased the Miss Marone Committee in 1950, at the encouragement of Kupp, and had been serving as its president since then. Despite only having the title of secretary, Kupp was involved significantly in the planning and organizing of events, and the management of the Miss Marone Organization.

Following the death of Gatos in 1964, Kupp was appointed as the new president of the Miss Marone Committee, as Gatos's will left her as the heiress to his business fortune. Upon taking control of the organization, Kupp sought to revolutionize the pageant and significantly broaden its reach. Beginning with Miss Marone 1966, Kupp abolished eligibility rules that barred contestants from being in romantic relationships, but also implemented various eligibility rules regarding the appearances of contestants. These rules included barring contestants with tattoos or non-ear piercings, introducing a height requirement of 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in), and banning cosmetic surgeries and the usage of appearance-altering products for contestants. Beginning with Miss Marone 1970, Kupp implemented a rule which barred contestants have who participated in photoshoots deemed too suggestive by the Miss Marone Committee, following controversy over Thomasine Foutoux, a contestant in Miss Marone 1969, whom had posed in *Playboy Marone*.

In 1966, Kupp negotiated a deal with TM1, her former employer, to broadcast the Miss Marone 1967 pageant live on the network. Previously, the competition received no live broadcast and could only be watched in-person by buying tickets to the venue. Through the deal, Kupp sold the Miss Marone brand to TM1 for $2.5 million ($22.8 million in 2022). The deal proved to be a success, with 5.6 million viewers watching the Miss Marone 1967 pageant in December 1966. By the 1980s, the pageant had turned into a national phenomenon, regularly reaching 10 million viewers annually. Beginning with Miss Marone 1991, Kupp began organizing each edition with a planned theme, which impacted the costumes of the contestants and scenery.

#### Resignation

In May 2009, it was reported that Kupp had been coming into conflict with executives at TM1 over eligibility rules to compete in Miss Marone, particularly the rules barring contestants from having tattoos or non-ear piercings, and from participating in photoshoots deemed too suggestive by the committee. That June, it was announced that the rules would be abolished beginning with Miss Marone 2011 the following year. Following the announcement, Kupp partook in a radio interview where she admonished TM1 executives for the decision, adding that she was "strong-armed" and "bulldozed," and that her opinion on the issue was completely ignored despite her status as the president of the organization, calling the executives "cockroaches" and "vermin."

Following the interview, Kupp was heavily criticized in the Maronan media both for her comments in the interview and her stance on the eligibility rules. A number of women whom had been disqualified from local or regional pageants for rule violations spoke to the media about their experiences, including a woman whom had posed topless in a campaign advocating for breast cancer research, and a woman whom had received a tattoo to honor her deceased mother. The controversy was particularly debated in Maronan Naysia, where tattoos are an important cultural tradition, and numerous women have been barring from winning Miss Wahiti due to having tattoos.

In July 2009, amidst the controversy, Kupp stated that she had resigned from her position as president of the Miss Marone Committee, but would remain affiliated with the organization. She was replaced by Élisabeth Desjardins, whom had been crowned Miss Marone 2002 and worked as director of external relations for the Miss Marone Committee since 2004. Kupp and Desjardins cohosted Miss Marone 2010 together along with Jean-Pierre Fredriksen, before Kupp stated that she would be severing ties with the Miss Marone Committee in January 2010, primarily due to her belief that she was being "pushed out" from the organization by both TM1 executives and Desjardins. Her sons, Gabriel and Jean-Luc Gatos-Kupp, whom had been employed at the Miss Marone Organization as chief financial officer (CFO) and chief legal officer (CLO), respectively, also tendered their resignations that month in support of their mother. After resigning, Kupp stated that she had decided to retire from public life.

## Personal life

### Family

Kupp met Maronan businessman and entrepreneur Emeric Gatos (1898–1964), who was 32 years her senior, in 1948, while she was reigning as Miss Charlotte 1948. They began their relationship in secret, as regional titleholders were barred from being in romantic relationships at the time. Kupp and Gatos became engaged in 1949, and married later that year in Delmas. Kupp was the third wife of Gatos, and became the stepmother of his five children from prior marriages, although she has noted that she never met her stepchildren, most of whom she was several years younger than, as Gatos was no longer in contact with them or his ex-wives.

Kupp and Gatos had two sons together: Gabriel (born 1951) and Jean-Luc (born 1953), both of whom went on to work at the Miss Marone Organization with Kupp. The family resided in Saint-Jean, outside of Delmas. Gatos later died on 6 June 1964, following a pulmonary embolism.

### Public image

Kupp was renown throughout Marone for her unchanging sense of fashion. From the 1950s until her death, Kupp was publicly seen in only black and white outfits, worn with a wide-brimmed hat. The look led to Kupp becoming known as "the woman with the hat" (Maronan: *la femme avec le chapeau*) in the Maronan media, which was also the title of her 1998 autobiography. In the autobiography, Kupp revealed that the look was the creation of her husband, who believed that it would make Kupp be taken more seriously.

Kupp also received attention for her outspoken political opinions. In her autobiography, Kupp stated that she was raised by Socialist parents, but began to support the Republican Party after her marriage, although she reverted to supporting Socialist candidates after her husband's death in 1964. In 2012, Kupp stated that she had left the Socialist Party and joined the Nationalist Movement, due to her opposition to same-sex marriage and adoption, transgender rights, and immigration. In 2015, she stated that same-sex marriage was an "abomination," and later criticized Élisabeth Desjardins for "dirtying the name of Miss Marone" after Desjardins stated that she would not oppose transgender women competing in the pageant in 2019.

## Death

Kupp died in her sleep at her Saint-Jean home in the night of 10 August 2023, aged 93, as revealed by her son the following morning. The cause of death was determined to be natural causes.