If you find it impossible to believe that there is an annual "Miss White Settlement" pageant, go here.
There's more. It turns out there is a City of White Settlement, Texas, for which the pageant is named. According to the city's official website, White Settlement is "nestled in 5 square miles bounded by IH30, Loop 820 West, and the Joint Naval Air Station (formerly Carswell Air Force Base)," and has a long-standing multi-ethnic "sense of community."
In 2005 there was a referendum on a proposal to change the name from White Settlement to West Settlement. The proposal was defeated by a vote of 2,388 to 219.
A look at the photo gallery of past Miss White Settlements, including Miss White Settlement 2001 Cindy Elizondo (pictured), makes the town's name that much more interesting.
For the musically-inclined, the story also has a coda: Ms. Elizondo's uniquely enthusiastic performance of Chopin's Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor, given during the Miss Texas 2000 pageant in which she was named fourth runner-up. I think her version of Chopin is kind of cool, actually – it's as if she's trying to channel Anthony Braxton.
Thanks to pianist and cultural excavator Brian Soule for the tip.
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