STATE FAIR QUEEN
State Fair Queen
Miss Idaho, Miss Idaho
State Fair Queen
Prettiest girl we’ve ever seen
I’m so pleased for you and so happy for you
Another Miss Idaho in our family
That’s gotten to be a bit of a family tradition now
Miss Idaho, just like your mother and her mother too
Sit and talk to me. I’ve something to tell you
Miss Idaho State Fair Queen
I know it’s hard to believe now looking at me today
That there was a time when all the young men looked at me that way
And they sang that song for me back in 1943
I was just about ready to turn eighteen
I was their Miss Idaho, State Fair Queen
The prettiest girl they’d ever seens
And I met the most handsome man I’d ever known
His name was Jack, he was in the air force,
And into his arms I had just flown
We fell in love, got married in 1944, but soon he went off to war
Waved goodbye to his new bride his teenage beauty queen
Went off to war, in the crew of a B17
What we had was a short and beautiful romance
But we never really had that much of a chance
I got a letter one day soon after to say
That his B17 had been shot down over occupied France
He came back home to me in a wooden box
Draped in the stars and stripes and red white and blue
He died fighting a fight that he believed was right
Trying to make this world a better place
But he never got to see his unborn daughter’s face
Your mother’s mother, Jessica that was the name
That we both said we would call her if she was a girl
That was Jack’s mothers name, that’s from where it came
At sweet 17 Jessica was also Miss Idaho, State Fair Queen, it’s true
They sang that song for your grandmother too
Then she got restless, went way out west
To San Francisco, to put flowers in her hair
That was in that magical summer of 1967
She talked about it as if she was going to heaven
Jessica wrote letters, even a telephone call or two
About all the beautiful people she met with flowers in their hair
Who only lived for peace, love and understanding
I was so jealous, how I wished I could have been there
She promised to come home soon
But by the time she did we’d put men on the moon
That in late 1974, a knock at my door, when I opened something more
Not just Jessica, but a beautiful little girl, Sarah, your mother to be
I was as happy as any mother, any grandmother could be
She looked so pretty that day, with flowers in her hair
Even though she was only turned three
And Sarah, well she grew up to have such an independent spirit
Just like her mother, I think you see, they both got that from me
How could I ever have imagined back in 1943
That in 1989 any grand-daughter of mine, to be
Would become Miss Idaho State Fair Queen just like me
Your mother looked so pretty that day
Anyone who was there who saw her
Wasn’t too surprised things turned out that way
Everyone at the fair singing that day
Miss Idaho, Miss Idaho
State Fair Queen
Prettiest girl we’ve ever seen
But your mother got so sick back in the summer of ‘97
God called for her, for her to be at his side in heaven
That always seemed so unfair to me, how could it be
I was old, your mother was still so young
It should have been me, it should have been me
But God still had plans for me, for this day to see
PAUSE IN MUSIC and spoken LINE BELOW
And I just know your mother in looking down on you today
Seems now like it has all been a dream
All three of us Miss Idaho Miss State Fair Queen
Now you’ve gone and made it number four
Will there ever be anymore
An old friend of mine just said to me too
Sarah-Jane, well she looks just like I remember you
Just like I remember you when you were Miss Idaho State Fair Queen
Just like she remembered me way back in 1943
How strange is that, you look just like me
When I was Miss Idaho back in 1943
Come closer child, let me sing to you
Just like I did to your mother and grandmother before you too
Miss Idaho, Miss Idaho
State Fair Queen
Prettiest girl we’ve ever seen
Miss Idaho, Miss Idaho
State Fair Queen
Prettiest girl we’ve ever seen
Words Copyright © Tom King 2018
Miss Idaho, Miss Idaho
State Fair Queen
Prettiest girl we’ve ever seen
I’m so pleased for you and so happy for you
Another Miss Idaho in our family
That’s gotten to be a bit of a family tradition now
Miss Idaho, just like your mother and her mother too
Sit and talk to me. I’ve something to tell you
Miss Idaho State Fair Queen
I know it’s hard to believe now looking at me today
That there was a time when all the young men looked at me that way
And they sang that song for me back in 1943
I was just about ready to turn eighteen
I was their Miss Idaho, State Fair Queen
The prettiest girl they’d ever seens
And I met the most handsome man I’d ever known
His name was Jack, he was in the air force,
And into his arms I had just flown
We fell in love, got married in 1944, but soon he went off to war
Waved goodbye to his new bride his teenage beauty queen
Went off to war, in the crew of a B17
What we had was a short and beautiful romance
But we never really had that much of a chance
I got a letter one day soon after to say
That his B17 had been shot down over occupied France
He came back home to me in a wooden box
Draped in the stars and stripes and red white and blue
He died fighting a fight that he believed was right
Trying to make this world a better place
But he never got to see his unborn daughter’s face
Your mother’s mother, Jessica that was the name
That we both said we would call her if she was a girl
That was Jack’s mothers name, that’s from where it came
At sweet 17 Jessica was also Miss Idaho, State Fair Queen, it’s true
They sang that song for your grandmother too
Then she got restless, went way out west
To San Francisco, to put flowers in her hair
That was in that magical summer of 1967
She talked about it as if she was going to heaven
Jessica wrote letters, even a telephone call or two
About all the beautiful people she met with flowers in their hair
Who only lived for peace, love and understanding
I was so jealous, how I wished I could have been there
She promised to come home soon
But by the time she did we’d put men on the moon
That in late 1974, a knock at my door, when I opened something more
Not just Jessica, but a beautiful little girl, Sarah, your mother to be
I was as happy as any mother, any grandmother could be
She looked so pretty that day, with flowers in her hair
Even though she was only turned three
And Sarah, well she grew up to have such an independent spirit
Just like her mother, I think you see, they both got that from me
How could I ever have imagined back in 1943
That in 1989 any grand-daughter of mine, to be
Would become Miss Idaho State Fair Queen just like me
Your mother looked so pretty that day
Anyone who was there who saw her
Wasn’t too surprised things turned out that way
Everyone at the fair singing that day
Miss Idaho, Miss Idaho
State Fair Queen
Prettiest girl we’ve ever seen
But your mother got so sick back in the summer of ‘97
God called for her, for her to be at his side in heaven
That always seemed so unfair to me, how could it be
I was old, your mother was still so young
It should have been me, it should have been me
But God still had plans for me, for this day to see
PAUSE IN MUSIC and spoken LINE BELOW
And I just know your mother in looking down on you today
Seems now like it has all been a dream
All three of us Miss Idaho Miss State Fair Queen
Now you’ve gone and made it number four
Will there ever be anymore
An old friend of mine just said to me too
Sarah-Jane, well she looks just like I remember you
Just like I remember you when you were Miss Idaho State Fair Queen
Just like she remembered me way back in 1943
How strange is that, you look just like me
When I was Miss Idaho back in 1943
Come closer child, let me sing to you
Just like I did to your mother and grandmother before you too
Miss Idaho, Miss Idaho
State Fair Queen
Prettiest girl we’ve ever seen
Miss Idaho, Miss Idaho
State Fair Queen
Prettiest girl we’ve ever seen
Words Copyright © Tom King 2018
NOTES
"State Fair Queen" came about as the merging of two ideas - a State fair where a young girl is about to be crowned the "State Fair Queen" and the simple little tune that every one has always sung to celebrate the new queen. Unknown to the young girl, her great grandmother was also around her age crowned "queen" as well as her grandmother and mother. This girl in fact is the fourth generation of her family to win the crown, and this is her great grandmother's story to her of not only her family but a short lived love story from World War 2.
This Story was one of the most difficult for me to write as each of our women had to be within a specific age range and the events in their story had to match up the correct points in time and relate properly to all four of them.
"State Fair Queen" Copyright © Tom King 2022