A PERMANENT FIXTURE?

Every town, city, distict, province, state and country has them: Those "regulars" on the pageant circuit who enter any and every event that results in the awarding of a tiara and a sash at the conclusion thereof.

It is not unusual for a contestant in the Miss USA system, for example, to compete for the state title on a number of occasions before eventually bagging the big prize. Crystle Stewart is one such contestant. She only won the Miss Texas title at her fifth attempt, and then won the Miss USA title in 2008.

There are a number of girls on the local regional and national pageant circuit who are more or less "fixtures". In fact, a study of regional pageant results often reveals that at least half of the contestants on the list of finalists have competed against one another on a number of occasions previously.

Even on the national pageant circuit, I can think of a few girls who are only a couple of appearances short of earning a "permanent number" if such numbers were awarded. But none come close to the record of the girl pictured above.

I was reading up on the national pageant results in one of the lands of our forefathers at Miss Holland Now when I came across the name Nanny Nielan. I am familiar with the name having followed the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants since the 70's.

I knew off-hand that she had represented the Netherlands at both pageants, but nothing prepared me for what I was about to discover when I went through the contestant lists for the Miss Holland pageant. How is this for a record in national pageant appearances:

1975: 3rd runner-up (went to Miss International)
1976: 1st runner-up (went to Miss Universe)
1977: did not compete
1978: 3rd runner-up
1979: 2nd runner-up (went to Miss World)
1980: unplaced
1981: did not compete
1982: unplaced

Nanny Nielan appeared in the final of the Miss Holland pageant six years out of eight! I'm guessing she would have entered in 1977 as well, but for the fact that the 1976 winner was dethroned 3 months into her reign and Nanny merely "filled in" for the next 9 months without assuming the title.

So next time anyone bleats about "repeaters" at Miss SA, just tell them about Nanny Nielan and they'll shut up.