The First Miss Wisconsin: Mabel Dupont from Pierce Town

Northeast Wisconsin history was made in 1973 when DePere’s Terry Ann Meeuswen was crowned Miss America after capturing the Miss Wisconsin title a year earlier.  It happened because of women such as Kewaunee County’s Mabel Dupont paved the way. Her obituary says she was the very first Miss Wisconsin in 1930, chosen in a still somewhat new competition.

An online check has such Badger State beauty pageants dating to 1924, but a few of the earlier years show little in a recorded history. Mabel doesn’t show up in 1930, but neither does anybody else.

Sixteen year old Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C. was the first Miss America on September 7, 1921. Now called Miss America, the 1921 beauty competition began in Atlantic City, New Jersey as the Inner-City Contest, an effort to pump up business for the forthcoming Labor Day. Eight young women vied for honors in an event which, over the years, had its ups and downs before being what it is today. Margaret won only to return to high school. A girl entering her junior year of high school would not be a viable candidate today, however Margaret was said to resemble Mary Pickford, sweetheart of America’s films (silent), and who could beat that?  Margaret Gorman was said to measure 30-25-32 and was 4” shorter than Mabel. Unusual measurements today, but Margaret was a teenager.

American Federation of Labor's Samuel Gompers was in his 70s and a judge in the contest. He saw the 16 year old child as representing American womanhood, strong and able to shoulder motherhood and homemaking. He felt the country rested on "women" like Margaret. That was in a day when women had few rights. It was only the year before that the 19^th Amendment was passed.

Mabel Dupont, the 24 year old daughter of a Rostok*couple, was living and working in Milwaukee during the 1920s. At just a little over 5’5”, the blue-eyed brunette Kewaunee High School graduate entered Milwaukee Elk’s Club bathing beauty contest and was chosen as Miss Milwaukee. In early March 1930 it was announced that Mabel would represent Wisconsin competing for America’s Sweetheart at the Miami National Beauty Contest.  

A Milwaukee Journal article said Mabel's curves mattered and that her bust and hips were 34 and 36” respectively. Although the article left out her waist measurement, it provided her shoulder, ankle and calf dimensions. A photo of Mabel well covered in an alluring swimsuit of the day also made note of her exact address on South 8^th Street. That swimming suit was as controversial then as it was in contests a few years ago. The promoters were attempting to offer a clean, wholesome image while offering the spectacle of a bathing suit in the hopes of attracting a greater audience. Just a few years earlier, women could be arrested on the beach for daring to roll down their socks and exposing their knees!

Four years after the contest, April 1934, Mabel married Milwaukee resident John Warras at a ceremony held at Holy Rosary Church in Kewaunee. She was 81 when she died at Algoma in 1987. Though both her wedding article and her obit made mention of the beauty contest, there nothing more. Mabel made history yet stands alone. She is the first and last Kewaunee County girl to be chosen Miss Wisconsin.

Note:*Rostok is in Pierce Town, about midway between Alaska and Kewaunee.

An online check reveals that scandal and the Depression shut down Atlantic City’s Miss America pageants between 1928 and 1932. In 1930 the contest was moved to Miami and billed as “Miami National Beauty Contest.” The winner was to be called America’s Sweetheart but the press continued to refer to her as Miss America.

The newspaper clipping was neither dated nor sourced but almost certainly comes from a Milwaukee Journal printed sometime in March 1930. The photo was taken by Kohler Studios. As Mabel was living in Milwaukee, the studio was no doubt there. An Ancestry  check found a studio with that name at 125 E. Wells in 1916. A Google search found 725 W. Water within a 10 year time period.