Rose Garden Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Stephania Bednar

Elizabeth King was the first woman crowned in what later became the Miss Santa Clara County pageant. She won the title in 1947.

Crowned King

Memories of county's first beauty queen still rein

By Mary Gottschalk

It's been six decades since Elizabeth King was crowned San Jose's Miss Beverly Burbank, but when she talks about, it sounds like last week. Her memories remain clear and vivid.

King was 17 years old back then and not in the least interested in the beauty contest, named after the Beverly-Burbank neighborhood near W. San Carlos Street.

"I was the last one to enter," she says of the 1947 event, which evolved into the Miss Santa Clara County pageant the following year.

"Everyone in Burbank knew me. I lived there, and I did a lot of walking. The merchants could set their clocks by the time I walked by," she says.

King recalls sitting on the front porch of her parents' home in the Burbank District when Paul Rosetti walked up and asked her to enter the Miss Beverly Burbank contest under his sponsorship.

"He said, 'Everyone says you would win the contest if you'd enter, but you won't enter. My brother and I just started this trucking company, and we could use the publicity.' "

King says she told Rosetti she didn't own a swimsuit or a formal, and he promised to take care of everything if she would agree to enter the contest under the sponsorship of Rosetti Brothers Trucking Co.

As King's father was a Pentecostal minister, she was worried about what the Rev. William Walter King would think.

"I asked my mom what would dad say and she said, 'We won't tell him until it's over.' "

King was contestant No. 51, and it took time for the seven judges, including then-Mayor Al Ruffo, to make their decision.

King says every time she left the stage, she started to change into her regular clothes. Then someone would come backstage and tell her to put her swimsuit back on.

In the end, King won the crown.

A newspaper clipping of the event is headlined "Comely Miss King Named Queen Winner" and reports on how the "pretty and shapely brunette" was crowned queen of the Burbank District celebration following three hours of judging.

It also included the all-important acknowledgement that she was "sponsored by Rosetti Brothers Trucking Co."

King says she could see her mother, Velma King, "walking down the aisle with tears in her eyes."

As for her father, she recalls, "He didn't say too much. I think he was proud of me. I know my mother was."

King, who lives in the Burbank area, recently attended a meeting of the W. San Carlos Street Neighborhood Business Association at the USE Credit Union offices to share her memories on the beginnings of the Burbank Jamboree, which is still held in the neighborhood each summer.

Jose Vargas, business association manager, invited King to come after receiving a phone call from her disputing when the jamboree started.

The association had long believed that the jamboree started in 1948, but King set the record straight with her stories and clippings of the first festivities in 1947.

It was four-day celebration that included a parade with floats along W. San Carlos from Race Street to Bascom Avenue, a talent contest, a beard contest and an entertainment show, in addition to the beauty contest.

Along with her crown, King won a trip to Hollywood, $100 in cash and a piece of luggage.

"One hundred dollars was a lot of money then. My parents were paying $15 a month mortgage on their home," King says.

She made the trip to Hollywood and was photographed at MGM studios.

King still has some of the photos, which show a strikingly beautiful young woman.

However, a film career was not for her.

"There were too many beds on the ladder up," she says dismissively.

In addition to her Burbank crown, King represented the San Jose Squadron of the Air Force Association's Miss Airpower contest at the Hotel Sainte Clare, and she also made a personal appearance at the Lions International Convention in San Francisco in 1947.

The crowns and sashes are gone, but King has newspaper clippings of herself modeling fashions for area stores and riding in San Jose's Flag Day parade to promote the 1948 Jamboree.

There's also a photo of her crowning the 1948 Miss Santa Clara County.

By then King was married. She says had she still been single, pageant organizers told her they would have sent her to the Miss California competition and if she'd won there, she would have gone on to Miss America.

King told association members about life in San Jose 60 years ago, including her job as a carhop at the old Five Spot Drive-In on South First Street.

"I lied about my age. I was only 15 then," King says. "Lots of cops came by. Coffee was 5 cents, but it was free to cops, and they'd tip me 25 cents.

I was hopping 500 cars a night and giving the money to my mom."

Later, when she checked her Social Security records, King found out she reported earning $132 that summer.

King also recalled "cutting 'cots," a common job when Santa Clara County was an agricultural center. She was paid 5 cents per lug box of apricots.

As the evening progressed, King answered questions from association members and recalled businesses that are now just memories, from Sweetland and Henry's restaurants to the Hallmark store and Wood's Ice Cream.

She also recalled urging her father to invest in land on Stevens Creek Boulevard extending back to Forest Avenue at $50 a front foot. It's now the site of Westfield Valley Fair.

"Nobody listened to a good-looking, smart woman in those days," she says.

King moved to Southern California in 1959. She says she has two children and no grandchildren. She declines to answer questions she considers personal.

King returned to the Burbank area around 1980, and today, she manages an apartment complex.

Her hair is now a silver gray, and she uses a cane to steady herself following a stroke. She often wears a glove on her right hand to discourage handshakes that might injure her hand.

Yet her eyes twinkle and she's every inch a queen as she accepts a spray of red roses from the association.

In parting she tells them they ought to revive the beauty contest in conjunction with the annual Burbank Jamboree, which is now just a one-day event.

"There isn't a man in town who won't go out to see a beauty contest," King says with a knowing smile.