Fallbrook's first tiara

I would have voted for Mary Rice in 1937.

I would have written her name on a slip of paper ---- "Mary Miller" back then, still a teenager. Would have folded my ballot once or twice and tucked it into a jar on the counter of one of the shops along Main Street.

Then smiled when she became the first Miss Fallbrook.

That's what a majority of people did back in '37, and Mary has stuck around for 73 years since that fateful vote, amassing memories that she unpacked one by one for me on a rainy day last month as we sat in her room at Silvergate.

"I can think way back," Mary told me ---- not bragging, mind you. Just stating a fact. "I was just looking at the Fallbrook Directory. It used to be it was just a few pages, you know. We knew everyone."

And I believe she did. Ever heard of Howard Keel? The deep-voiced actor and star of "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers"? He was "a little mischievous" in high school, she recalled.

"He lived here in Fallbrook, and his mother used to come and do housework for my mother. He was a year ahead of me in high school, and my sister, Dolly, dated him.

"Our English teacher said in his yearbook that he was one in the class who would never amount to anything," she added with a grin. "He just barely got through high school because he was goofing off all the time."

Mary's family arrived in Fallbrook in 1923, when she was 4 years old, and her mother bought 40 acres southeast of the modern intersection of Fallbrook Street and Morro Road. Watering the groves of citrus, avocado and olives was a huge reservoir that served as a community swimming pool in the summer.

"All the kids came to go swimming in our pool," she said.

All the kids? I asked.

"All the kids in Fallbrook," she repeated. "Mother never had anything left in the refrigerator, the bath towels were always wet. We were very hospitable."

As for her historic title as the original Miss Fallbrook, Mary recalled that the honor was decided by popular vote. The whole town got in on it.

And it wasn't "Miss Fallbrook," as such ---- not yet. Back then, the pretty young woman named to represent the community every year bore the title "Queen of the May."

Mary couldn't remember how many votes she received, but she did recall in vivid detail the dress she wore at the parade.

"A peach color," she said wistfully. "Just beautiful."

I asked her how it felt to be acknowledged, to be chosen as the first beauty queen in a town where everyone knew everyone else.

"I was flabbergasted that they chose me," she said. "It was really an honor, you know?"

I know. But I'm not surprised ---- not in the least.

You see, even in 1937, when the town was in the lemon business, before it was artsy, before the air park and the interstate and telephones in every house, Fallbrook had good taste.

If you want proof, just spend an hour with Mary Rice.

Contact Tom Pfingsten at fallbrooktown@gmail.com.