EASTERN

Judy, third from right, is one of the finalists in the Miss USA pageant, as was Miss California, the sister of actor David Janssen of "The Fugitive"€. (Photos/Courtesy Judy Richards Makowski)

Author’s note:  I was recently contacted by EMU alumna Judy Richards Makowski (BS63), (third from right in the above photo) after she read a piece in Eastern magazine about my time at an event honoring the legacy of Dick Clark. You see, she appeared on Clark’s “American Bandstand” show in 1961–an honor she had not anticipated having. These are the adventures that got her there.

As a prospective elementary school teacher in the late 1950s, Judith Richards of Dearborn Heights knew that EMU was her perfect college choice. Still, one required first-year class, Fundamentals of Speech, was proving to be a problem. Many students were nervous at the prospect of addressing a roomful of peers, but Judy experienced true fear. Debilitating, knee-knocking, “I can’t breathe” fear.

Her instructor, John Sargent, believed in facing fears head on. He handed Judy an application to the Miss Ypsilanti pageant, to be held in Pease Auditorium, and suggested she give it a try. She entered—and then had no choice but to go through with it. Even though she didn’t win the title, she says, “I chalked it up as a personal victory because I didn’t fall off the stage or go running off in tears.”

Judy was invited to participate in another local pageant, this one sponsored by the Miss USA organization, and she decided to test herself again. “Wearing my senior high school prom dress, I became Miss Washtenaw County,” she recalls. “And in June 1960 I was crowned Miss Michigan USA at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit.”

Now came the ultimate challenge for the bashful beauty. On July 7, 1960, she competed in the Miss USA pageant in Miami Beach—the first nationally televised Miss USA pageant. Her trip to Florida was her first airplane ride. 

Judy came in fifth, but she took the top honor in the “Most Kissable Girl in the World” competition judged by young men from the University of Miami. Their decision was based on lip prints that the contestants submitted on index cards. The Eastern Echo had fun reporting Judy’s title with a bold headline. All kidding aside, Judy told the student paper that the pageant adventure was “the most broadening experience” of her life. 

But she was not done yet. When Judy returned to campus in the fall of 1960, she took a class in expository writing. One assignment was to write a magazine article and submit it. The national “Datebook” magazine published her behind-the-scenes piece on the Miss USA pageant. “And I still only got a B plus in that class,” Judy chuckles.

Although she had no interest in a career in show business, Judy felt that modeling could help pay for her studies. She appeared in “back to school” print ads for Hudson’s and Crowley’s department stores. She modeled at the Detroit Auto Show. Her most remarkable assignment, though, was for the “Michigan Marching Forward” campaign of the Greater Michigan Foundation. 

In May 1961, she travelled to Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia to salute the Mitten State and its products. Judy’s first stop was the “Lawrence Welk Show,” where she shared a dressing room with the popular singers the Lennon Sisters. After her smooth on-air presentation on behalf of Dodge automobiles, Judy was startled when Welk himself took her hand and ushered her to the dance floor. “I wasn’t good at dancing,” she recalls. “I’m pretty sure I stepped on his toe.”  

The next stop on the tour was “Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club,” a nationally syndicated radio program, where she sang the praises of Kellogg’s. Then it was “The Captain Kangaroo Show” to talk about Gerber’s baby food. On the “Today Show” with Dave Garroway, Judy was supposed to engage in three activities representing what the state had to offer:  casting a fishing line, putting together a cherry pie, and milking a cow.

Finally Judy arrived at Studio B of WFIL-TV in Philadelphia for “American Bandstand.”  “Dick Clark was so wonderful. He put me completely at ease,” she says. When Clark learned that it was the 10th birthday of Judy’s sister Kathie, he autographed a souvenir book for Judy to take home for her. 

Then it was time for the live broadcast. “It was so exciting to see the dancers and the cameras,” Judy recalls. Back in Dearborn Heights, Kathie and her friends were watching in the living room of the Richards home. When Dick Clark mentioned Kathie’s birthday on air, the little sister could hardly believe it. What a surprise! The stuff of family legend.

In her senior year at Eastern, Judy married her boyfriend Tim. She taught at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., where Tim was stationed that fall, and later in Michigan and Texas. The couple raised two daughters and are enjoying a happy retirement in Humble, Texas.

The memories of the early 1960s are suffused with a golden glow for so many Americans who were young and eager to believe that all things were possible. Judy Richards experienced the exhilaration of venturing into a new frontier, and says she will always be grateful for the push that came in a classroom at EMU. 

Contact Darcy Gifford, dgiffor2@emich.edu , 734.487.5375