Madeleine Farah, Miss America of Lebanese Origin

She loves languages — she sews her own dresses... and she does not smoke!...

...She is a queen, with all her splendor and her crown — Miss America of Lebanese origin! Dark and slender, black of hair and eye — and every one of her features Lebanese.

Her father is Salim Farah of Baskinta, and her mother Loris Nasrallah of Hadath, Beirut...

She is twenty-two years old, and her face overflows with charm and quick intelligence; she is well-bred and polished, yet natural and simple — the "fame of queenship" has not scorched her with its fire...

The story of the contest is a genuinely amusing one. The sponsor of the project is the "Lebanese American Journal," which is published by al-Hoda of New York. Beginning last May it started running publicity and announcing its intention to elect a Miss America of Lebanese origin, and the applications came pouring in, photographs attached, from within the community only, until they numbered thirty-five. The committee chose ten from among them and fixed "Labor Day" — the first week of September — as the date of the contest.

Every year on "Labor Day," the Lebanese-Syrian community in the United States has been accustomed to hold a great festival stretching over four consecutive days, in which it revives the nights of Lebanon, the joys of Lebanon, the feasts of Lebanon and its costumes — all in the old traditional manner, as the first wave knew it, those whose emigration goes back some half a century... At this festival the circles of the "dabke" come to life and throats burst forth in songs and chants: Ya Mijana... 'Al-Yadi al-Yadi... 'Ala al-Dal'ona.

At this festival, in this authentic Lebanese atmosphere, it was decided that the contest to choose the beauty queen should be held. The panel of judges was made up of eleven members, and some ten thousand spectators attended the celebration...

Madeleine Farah was in Cairo during the period of preparation, working as a secretary at the American Embassy, and her return to Washington happened to fall on the morrow of "Labor Day" — and she did not know that she was among the candidates for the throne! The truth is that her hope of winning was slight, especially since the prize announced by the "Lebanese American Journal" was a round-trip airplane journey to Lebanon, and no more than a month had passed since her own visit to Lebanon... She thought that this happy chance would not easily be opened to her, and that the field lay wider open to others...

...The hour drew near, and something like fear took hold of Madeleine, for she was alone in that sea of crowds... None of her family was with her: the distance between the state of Oregon and Providence, Rhode Island, is great, and her parents and her three older brothers work in trade in Oregon, while the festivals this year were held in Providence, Rhode Island...

The ten entrants in the contest had to parade in bathing suits and step gracefully along a platform around which the judges and the vast crowds were ranged in a storm of applause and thundering cheers... The results were not announced until after midnight, at a grand ball with which the festival is customarily brought to a close...

Madeleine Farah, meanwhile, was in the grip of fatigue and exhaustion, and something like astonishment and stupefaction came over her when her name alone was announced... and she was crowned "Miss America!" — of Lebanese origin. A few days later she flew to Beirut to enjoy her prize in earnest, and stayed two weeks as a dear and honored guest at the Plaza Hotel...

When the two weeks were over, the lovely young woman went the rounds of maternal and paternal uncles and of friends, and called a press conference at which she spoke in Arabic, English, and French — for Madeleine Farah, besides these languages, has a good command of Spanish. The reason she knows Arabic is that in her childhood she spent ten years with her mother in Lebanon, during which she learned Arabic and French. She loves languages, and upon her return to America at the end of last November she was to resume her university studies, and may well specialize in languages.

The Arab broadcasting stations seized the opportunity of Miss Farah's presence in Beirut, and she was presented on Radio Lebanon, on the BBC, and on Radio Paris. She expressed a desire to meet Fairuz, whose personality captivated her; and she was greatly pleased by the visit, because it replaced the distorted picture that had hung in her imagination of the owner of the most beautiful voice she has heard to this day!

Madeleine, unlike the new generation born and raised in the Mahjar, would love to return for good to her first homeland, Lebanon, and would be very happy, should she meet the prince of her dreams in these parts, to marry in Lebanon and settle down. But not one of her admirers has so far touched the strings of her heart; and like every modern girl she aspires to a man of singular personality, broad culture, and an enlightened mind... As for money, it is to her a secondary matter...

It remains for me to whisper in the ears of the young women of today that Madeleine Farah does not smoke, does not touch spirits, sews her own dresses, and is a housewife of the first order. Whenever she comes home on her vacations, she hurries off to her parents' store to help her brothers with the buying and selling...

We have many beautiful girls... perhaps we even have girls more beautiful than Madeleine Farah; but I doubt that our beauties have her qualities of modesty, simplicity, love of work, and faithfulness to tradition...