Strawberry Festival Queens, First Maid reflect on time-honored pageant tradition since 1930

TAMPA, Fla. - So many people are looking forward to the Strawberry Festival opening later this week. Berries continue to be the heart and soul of Plant City year after year. 

And, every year since 1930 comes the crowning of the festival's queen – a time-honored tradition at the Strawberry Festival. The first queen pageant took place 94 years ago. 

FOX 13 recently took a walk down memory lane with three former queens and one first maid. 

READ: Celebrating the Strawberry: Plant City church celebrates 50 years with Florida Strawberry Festival

The Strawberry Festival tradition they all once took part in is one that brings back fond memories of the years they reigned at the pageant. 

Pictured: Crowned Strawberry Festival Queens for 1956, 1968 and 1975, as well as the First Maid for 1956. 

Virginia Young Berry was crowned Strawberry Queen in 1956 and Mary Jane Parolini served as her first maid. They were two life-long friends from the 1956 competition. 

Soon after she was crowned, Berry got married. Parolini stood in for Berry to represent the Strawberry Queen in a national competition during that time and won. 

Sheryl Simmons Boggs won the 1975 pageant and Silvia Azorin Dodson was crowned in 1968. 

MORE: Berry Barn's Strawberry Pizzas

"Little girls around town and in the parades wanted my autograph," recalled Boggs. "It was almost too good to be true some days, I felt like."

This year the Strawberry Festival will unveil a new exhibit dedicated solely to the history of the Strawberry Queen Pageant. 

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