Date Published: September 30, 2025
Publisher: She Writes Press/Tantor
Narrator: Ann Marie Gideon
Run Time: 8 hours and 4 minutes
Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn't have designs on becoming a beauty queen. But not long after joining a pageant on a whim in college, she became the first protégé of El Paso's Richard Guy and Rex Holt, known as the "Kings of Beauty"—just as the 1970's counterculture movement began to take off.
A pink, rose-covered gown—a Guyrex creation—symbolizes the fairy tale life that young women in Jane's time imagined beauty queens had. Its near destruction exposes reality: the author's failed relationship with her mother, and her parents' failed relationship with one another. Weaving these narrative threads together is the Wild West notion that anything is possible, especially do-overs.
The Pink Dress awakens nostalgia for the 1960s and 1970s, the era's conflicts and growth pains. A common expectation that women went to college to get "MRS" degrees—to find a husband and become a stay-at-home wife and mother—often prevailed. How does one swim upstream against this notion among feminist voices that protest "If You Want Meat, Go to a Butcher!" at beauty pageants, two flamboyant showmen, and a developing awareness of self? Torn between women's traditional roles and what women could be, Guyrex Girls evolved, as did the author.
What was your main drive to write this
book?
I pondered telling this narrative for years—before my
mother passed—but never with the depth that The Pink Dress, A Memoir of a
Reluctant Beauty Queen finally entailed. I am normally a western biographer,
but time and an unexpected situation pushed me to shelve a project that I had
been working on in favor of writing the memoir. At a conference in San Antonio,
Texas, I sat in a bar with other women authors shortly before the Covid
shutdown. I had been clowning at our table, imitating an East Texas beauty
contestant’s thick accent when she discovered that her efforts to win Miss
Congeniality at a Miss Texas-Miss America pageant had been sabotaged. My
suitemates and I had eaten an enormous Texas-shaped cake that she hoped to
share the next morning. I had the ladies in stitches when a literary agent said
I should write the book. I had to think on this really hard. The Pink Dress
is not a comic narrative, but a story about forgiveness and growth through
America’s Counterculture Era. Yes, the beauty pageant business is the frame of
the narrative—and there is humor—but also there is a dysfunctional American
family, a jealous mother, a rebellion against social norms, and several
self-inflicting wounds. Readers have shared with me that they cannot put the
book down. They skip work, read until all hours of the night, etc. Some see
themselves in my story, and it is cathartic. I’m happy to bring thoughtfulness,
entertainment, and satisfaction to my readers.
What do you hope readers will learn by
reading this book?
The Pink Dress
has two major themes. First is that it is never too late to forgive. I blamed
my mother for all things gone wrong in my life. I had to grow up and view her
life with mature eyes to understand why she behaved in the manner she did. It
took me forty years to forgive her. The second theme is that do-overs are
possible. I made some terrible mistakes in trying to escape the circumstances in
which I had been placed. In retrospect, I immaturely confused poor situations
with opportunities. Still, despite a few self-inflicted setbacks, I was able to
start anew, as did some other people within this narrative. Most importantly, I
never saw myself as a victim, and women can make that choice as well in their
lives.
One reader wrote: “The Pink Dress is unlike any
other memoir you will read. It's beautifully written, deeply personal, and full
of fascinating cultural details about Texas and America in the 1970s. Jane
Little Botkin dug deep into her own past to shine a light on a story we think
we know, and gives us a new perspective on the past.”
Did you do much research when planning
this book?
Surprisingly, yes! I certainly possessed an abundance
of scrapbooks, photos, and other ephemerae but seeking deeper information
regarding cultural and social trends within this period required some work. I
discovered that the memorabilia easily formed a skeleton for framing the years
and events of which I was associated with famous beauty queen makers, Richard
Guy and Rex Holt, as the first “Guyrex Girl.” Although the narrative is a
memoir, being a historian, I also had to insert myself as a character with a
historian’s lens during the American Counterculture period. I had lived this
period, but I had never analyzed how certain aspects of the time affected me—my
mother, the beauty pageant business, and, more importantly, my life’s
decisions.
Did you have any main people who helped
you in the process of this book or influenced you to write it?
Digging into one’s memory after decades can be
daunting. My friends from 4th grade through college gave their
perceptions of my recollections and helped clarify cloudy memories. My mother
had been involved in their lives, too. One of these ladies possesses a remarkable
memory, and without her help, some of the events in the memoir would be faulty
or missing entirely. I tended to forget painful or embarrassing moments.
How long did this book take you to write
from initial thought to hitting publish?
In that San Antonio hotel bar just before Covid
derailed our world, I signed a pledge on a cocktail napkin that a romance
writer wrote. I promised to write the memoir. The Pink Dress, A Memoir of a
Reluctant Beauty Queen was published in 2024.
Do you have plans to write more about this
topic or new topics?
One memoir is enough! I am back to writing other
women’s life stories. My newest book, The Breath of a Buffalo, A Biography
of Mary Ann Goodnight, will be released in early 2027 from the University
of Oklahoma Press. Mary demanded her husband (Charles Goodnight of the famous
Goodnight-Loving Cattle Trail) save four bison calves after a near total
extinction event between 1870 and 1880. In doing so, she saved the Southern
Plains bison from becoming extinct. If you ever see a bison herd in a state or
national park, likely one or more of her bison helped establish the herd. Her
life story is enthralling.
About the Author
A NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, JANE...
melds personal narratives of American families often with compelling stories of western women. Jane is a late bloomer as an author. After teaching for thirty years, she was honored by the Texas State Legislature by formal resolution for her work with local history and education in 2008. She edited and directed publishing fifteen volumes of Texas local history with her former students before she decided to write on her own. Jane's first book propelled her membership on the Western Writers of America board and later as its vice president. Jane continues to judge entries for the WWA's prestigious Spur Award; reviews new book releases; authors articles for various magazines; and speaks to groups in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.
JANE'S FIRST TWO WORKS HAVE WON NUMEROUS AWARDS IN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY AND WOMEN'S STUDIES...
including two Spur Awards, two Caroline Bancroft History Prizes, the Texas Book Award, and the Barbara Sudler Award for the best book written on the West by a woman. Jane was also a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, High Plains Book Award, two Women Writing the West’s Willa Literary Awards, Independent Book Award, Foreword Indies Book Awards, and Sarton Book Award.
Released in fall 2024, Jane’s third book—what she calls her Covid book—is The Pink Dress, A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen, a Foreword Indies Book Award winner in pop culture and Women Writing the West's Willa Literary Award finalist in creative nonfiction. The narrative brings far West Texas to life during the 1970s’ American Counterculture era.
Jane's newest book, The Breath of a Buffalo, A Biography of Mary Ann Goodnight, will be released from the University of Oklahoma Press tentatively in fall 2026.
Today Jane blissfully escapes into her literary world in the remote White Mountain Wilderness near Nogal, New Mexico, when she is not speaking at various events or preparing for her next nonfiction book.
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