She wanted to be Queen for a Day

If you’re a certain age, you remember the question Jack Bailey posed to women in his large TV audience: “Would you like to be queen for a day?” Bailey made queendom the dream of women nationwide during his run as the show’s host from 1945 until 1964. Nina Oss was one of the approximately 5,000 winners. Christina Oss LaBang, of Coeur d’Alene, recently found a faded newspaper photo of her mother with a crown on her head, holding flowers and smiling broadly. Her mother had competed with other women for the “Queen for a Day” crown and prizes. Each had shared a hard-luck story. Applause from the studio audience and the “applause meter” had decided the winner. Nina’s back story was compelling. Daughter Christina tells Huckleberries: “My mother (Juanina Marie Fernandez) won because she and two of her sisters and a brother were incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp in the Philippines during World War II. While in the camp, she met my father (Norman Alfred Oss Jr). She married my father after being processed in United States at Catalina Island.” Jack Bailey and “Queen for a Day” brought the Osses full circle when the prizes awarded that long-ago day included a return trip to Catalina Island/ DFO , SR Sunday Huckleberries. More here.

Question: Would you like to be Queen for a Day?