On a mid-August evening in 1939, despite persistent rain, an eager crowd gathered at Ballston’s outdoor youth sports stadium (now long gone) to see who would be crowned Miss Virginia. The ceremony was just one of the highly anticipated events in a weeklong Birth of the Flag pageant.
Virginia Governor James Price was on hand to do the honors, bestowing the title on a young Arlington woman named Dorothy Simpson. In addition, Jane Smoot was named Miss Fairfax and Virginia Smarr was named Miss Arlington. For the finale, the pageant’s highest honor, Queen of the Flag, would be given to whichever contestant received the most votes.
Unfolding just weeks before Germany invaded Poland to ignite World War II, this rather Rockwellian scene was emblematic of the time. Hardships from the Great Depression were waning, and a wave of patriotic sentiment had prompted Dorothy’s parents, Ruby and Julian Simpson, to help plan an extravaganza celebrating America’s founding. Known to be active civic volunteers, the Simpsons were charter members of the Arlington Historical Society, and Ruby was the first woman to serve on the Arlington School Board. (The fact that their daughter Dorothy had entered the pageant’s popularity contest did not seem to raise nepotism concerns.)
Created to raise funds for a new youth recreation center, the Birth of the Flag pageant brought together a range of citizens and community groups—from the American Legion to the Girl Scouts—to plan the program, perform skits and act as the backstage crew. Historical reenactments included Betsy Ross and friends sewing an early American flag, Pocahontas at the Court of St. James in England, a Civil War battle, and scenes depicting Christopher Columbus, Abraham Lincoln and “the Gay Nineties.” Lt. Col. Francis Scott Key-Smith gave a lecture about “The Star-Spangled Banner,” written by his great-grandfather.
The pageant’s beauty and popularity contests drew widespread attention. The Washington Post offered updates on the vote counts for the “court of princesses” and at one point ran a photo of a contestant named Dorothy Martin bedecked in a patriotic drum major uniform, bugling “her call to the Nation to attend the tribute to the Stars and Stripes” in Arlington.
Ultimately, the pageant was not an economic success. But for those who attended, it was a reminder of American ideals not long before the nation entered a second global war. When Arlington teenager Mildred Bolen was finally crowned Queen of the Flag, she declared it “the happiest moment of my life.”