New Yorker Article Focuses On Berry Festival Queen

A Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and Plant City native has written a lengthy article for The New Yorker magazine on the Florida Strawberry Festival beauty pageant.

Headlined "The Strawberry Girls," the article by Anne Hull hit the newsstands Monday.

The lengthy piece takes an often nostalgic look at the town and pageant. The article largely follows the reigning queen, Kristen Smith, and her court members, first maid Shaunie Leigh Surrency, Britney Balliet, Jaclyn Raulerson and Amanda Nicole Sparkman, as they made promotional appearances and just hung out during the 2008 festival.

Smith is portrayed as a devout Christian who is a role model for how the town would perhaps see itself:

"When her spirits flagged, she read Scripture. She drove a pickup truck, attended a Christian college, worked part-time as a waitress, and wanted to spend the rest of her life in Plant City, raising a family. Kristen Smith disproved the theory that the Strawberry Queen had to be the well connected daughter of a town scion; her father repaired washing machines for a living. She looked like a young Bobbie Gentry, and she was just what Plant City was looking for in these modern times."

But the article also said the queen's court was made up of normal young women who occasionally act silly or curse. "Eventually, the façade of perfection started to crack. One of the girls let the "f " word slip out," Hull wrote.

Hull's article includes references to such well known Plant City locations as Jackie's School of Dance, Parkesdale Farm Market and First Baptist Church of Plant City. Hull laments in first person about the changes in Plant City since her childhood in the 1960s.

"I saw the 2008 Strawberry Queen and her court as a last stand against the inevitable end of a place that defined them and me. Yet the strawberry girls saw themselves as part of a tradition that started in 1930 and would go on forever."

Photos of the queen and court are on the magazine's Web site although the article itself is only in print. To view the photos, go to the Web site and under the table of contents look for "Slide Show: A portfolio of photographs of the Plant City Strawberry Festival Court, by Brian Finke."

The magazine will remain on sale through Aug. 18, said Chelsie Gosk, public relations coordinator for The New Yorker.