Spokane’S First Miss A Real Hit

No, the most famous woman in Spokane history is not May Arkwright Hutton, that crusading suffragette and social activist of yore.

Hutton was my educated first guess when lawman-turned-author Tony Bamonte posed the question the other day.

Nor was our most famous female Billy Tipton, the jazz musician who successfully masqueraded 54 years as a man.

That was the semi-serious second thought that flashed through my twisted mind.

When I finally gave up, Bamonte was only too happy to announce the famed name:

Marguerite Motie.

Who?

“She was the city’s first Miss Spokane,” Bamonte said. “She was absolutely our most famous woman.”

The evidence is rather convincing.

A luxury steamboat on Lake Coeur d’Alene was named after her. Spoons were made in her image. There was even perfume with her picture on the bottle. A candy company named a line of chocolates after her.

Two songs were written in her honor.

Postcards. Advertising campaigns. She even promoted the 1915 opening of the new Davenport Hotel.

“Every big shot who came to town was greeted by her,” Bamonte said.

Unfortunately, over the years Motie (pronounced Mo-chee) was all but forgotten.

But all that’s about to change.

Motie, who died in 1982, is getting her second brush with fame. She is the cover girl and the subject of the lion’s share of Bamonte’s latest literary waltz down memory lane.

Written and published by Tony and his wife, Suzanne, “Miss Spokane” ($39.95) hit area bookstores this week.

With words and photographs gleaned from family albums, the book chronicles the history of the Miss Spokane pageant and its success as an attention-getter during the town’s formative years.

It’s somewhat embarrassing to think of today. But for decades, beginning in 1912, the city’s No. 1 symbol was an attractive young white girl dressed up as an Indian maiden.

The Native American fakery was mercifully dropped in the early 1960s, when the inappropriateness of the costume began to sink in.

The city’s official Miss Spokane program chugged along until the late 1970s, when it ended because of dwindling interest.

Many of you will be surprised to learn, however, that we still have a Miss Spokane running around with tiara and sash.

Her name is Fianna Dickson. She is part of an unsponsored scholarship program that feeds into the Miss America pageant.

Confused? Buy the book, and it’ll all make sense.

For a kid who once flunked high school history at Metaline Falls, Tony Bamonte has a genuine passion for the past.

A former Pend Oreille County sheriff, Tony said he turned to writing history books for a living when voters decided he needed a new line of work.

“I’m politically dead,” Tony said with a laugh. “When you lose three elections, it’s over.”

During the past several years, the Bamontes have pumped out four pictorial books about the Inland Northwest.

They have discovered a marketable niche in chronicling our local lore. A book on Manito Park they released Christmas 1998, for example, sold more than 3,000 copies.

The idea for “Miss Spokane” came while the Bamontes were poring through old newspapers as part of their research.

“The name Marguerite Motie kept turning up,” Tony said.

In 1912, the 17-year-old was chosen Miss Spokane out of 138 girls. The contest was sponsored by the Spokane Advertising Club, a bunch of downtown poo-bahs who were looking for a way to drum up outside interest in Spokane.

Motie was perfect for the part. She was poised as well as photogenic and enormously popular.

So popular that the Ad Club didn’t pick a second Miss Spokane until 1939. They just kept bringing Motie back to preside over civic events, despite the fact that Miss Spokane was married with children and living in Seattle.

“I think the Ad Club realized what a gem they had in Marguerite Motie,” Tony said. “She was totally adored.”