OCALA, FL (352today.com) – After Ocala resident Casana Fink’s triumphant victory as the latest Miss Florida caught the eye of the local North Central Florida crowd, an incoming message caught my attention.
It was from fellow Ocala resident Lauren Monahan, who shared in Casana’s footsteps as a successful figure in the world of pageantry. Lauren, along with being a runner-up for Miss Florida in 1970, had become the first woman out of Ocala to win the Florida Senior Miss America competition. With the win in her back pocket, she scored a trip to Atlantic City to participate in the Senior Women 2024 National Pageant.
Intrigued by her success, I sat with Lauren for a one-on-one chat. While her brilliant pageantry career remains impressive, it only expresses a fragment of this woman’s phenomenal story.
Beginnings
It all started in Fort Lauderdale with a flyer on the wall of Lauren’s high school.
“The flier read, ‘Hey, do you want to be Ms. Fort Lauderdale at the Miss America system?'” recalls Lauren. Lauren decided to give pageantry a shot, even though she had never done it before. There was also the opportunity for scholarship money, and she was soon going to college.
“The big draw with those pageants is that there are thousands of dollars’ worth of scholarships for girls,” says Lauren.
Lauren found herself mixed with a group of 100 girls at her first pageant. Her mother told her to meet her in the front row if she was eliminated.
As the story goes, she won the competition. This storybook ending was merely the beginning of Lauren’s tale.
Thus, her pageantry journey began and has become a mainstay in her life ever since. Lauren credits pageantry for motivating a generation of young women, including herself, to strive for goals outside what most thought necessary.
“In the ’60s and ’70s, women were still expected to stay home, cook, clean, and raise kids,” says Lauren. “We wanted to do more and, believe it or not, pageantry opened those doors.”
Lauren attended college at the University of South Florida. It was the first year of scholarship programs for women in volleyball and basketball. While still participating in pageants, Lauren found the time to try out for both teams once she arrived on campus. She achieved a spot on both teams through tenacity and skill, crediting her persistent motivation to achieve everything she set out to do.
“I wanted to do everything,” she says. “I’m one of those people that just says, ‘Why can’t I do it?'”
Lauren continued accomplishing achievements well beyond expectations, going as far as the U.S. Coastguard to grasp them.
Military Detour
Around the time of her 1970 run for Miss Florida, Lauren had been selected to Officer Candidate School (OCS) in the United States Coast Guard, an experience she sums up in one hyphenated word—mind-blowing.
“I didn’t know what to expect. I was a woman in a field of men,” she says. “I went to OCS, and they handed me a rifle. It was an experience without words.”
The decision to join the Coast Guard followed footsteps left in the past; Lauren’s father was a retired Coast Guard captain who had served the country for over 30 years.
“I went to my dad and told him that I wanted to go to the Coast Guard Academy,” says Lauren. “I was the oldest of six, so I got to see everything he did, and I admired him so much. I even went on ships with him and just respected what he did. He was like Gregory Peck to me; he was in a uniform, and he was the boss. He gained so much respect from the people he was around. I wanted to go off to be the same way.”
Along with being an officer, Lauren attended Navy pilot training in Pensacola but did not fly.
“It was the early ’70s, and they weren’t quite yet ready to put women in the pilot’s seat.”
She says she also wanted to get on ships like her father but was never allowed to do so.
Lauren admits that following in her father’s footsteps and becoming a military member was an unorthodox experience for a woman at the time. Still, she takes her experience as an opportunity to talk to younger women about the positives of joining the armed forces.
“It left such an effect on me that that’s what I’ve worked toward all these years, which is getting women into the armed forces and serving and seeing what great things it could do for them,” she says. “I can’t help it. I’m old-school. I’m a veteran who’s big on patriotism and paying your dues to your country. I’m always on my soapbox about paying your dues to the country and knowing where you came from and why.”
Lauren still works closely with veterans’ associations today, working as part of Veterans Affairs in Knoxville, TN.
Dolphins Cheerleading/Nutrisystem Spokesperson
Growing up a huge Miami Dolphins fan has its ups and downs nowadays. However, it was the place to be in the days of Don Shula’s undefeated Super Bowl-winning team.
Lauren was lucky enough to have been a cheerleader during that time, traveling with the team part-time through its season. While she had a blast as a cheerleader, she recalled the one away team that was a bit tough to visit.
“Oakland Raiders. They were so evil and mean. Oh gosh, they were so horrible,” Lauren laughs. “John Madden was their coach. They were the black evil raiders. We were scared to go there; they were some absolutely wild people.”
As a spokesperson for Nutrisystem, Lauren lived the celebrity lifestyle.
“Limos, money, cash, everything,” says Lauren.
She was given a personal wardrobe and flown everywhere around the country.
“They’d tell me that I’d need to be in New York by Monday and I’d be doing photo shoots. They even flew me to California, and I got to do their commercials for a month,” exclaims Lauren. “I’d have billboards all up and down Highway 95, and I was on every big commercial in Miami. People were so sick of looking at me, but it was a heck of a time.”
Present-day
For over 40 years, Lauren worked in government administration, which she refers to as “the best decision of her life.” She says that working on the administration board further sharpened her pageantry skills.
“I ran a senior center for 20 years and had to handle 6,000 people. There’s not a day where somebody’s not knocking on your door, and you have to be diplomatic and serve them well,” Lauren explains. “All these things go into the pageantry field: you’re an ambassador to the public, and you have to be able to handle yourself.”
When asked how pageantry has remained a mainstay in her life since high school, she shares, “It keeps me current, fit, energetic and gives me something to look forward to. It allows me to keep myself the best possible way I can, not only in looks but also in keeping up with current events and helping the community.”
“I’m not one of these people who is a pageant freak, but it has definitely influenced my life behind the scenes,” says Lauren. “It has done so much for me in my business and personal life, which sounds silly because people think it’s just dressing up in a gown. It has brought me interview skills, how to present myself, and how to speak without being shy or worried.”
Lauren says pageantry allows her to speak with women her age short on life motivation.
“You get to a certain age, especially when you retire, where you lose your identity and you don’t know what you’re good for anymore,” Lauren says. “You sit around thinking ‘I’m old, I don’t need to look good anymore, who cares? I think I’ll sit in my rocking chair and watch TV all day because my life is over.'”
Keeping it blunt, Lauren says, “I try to change that with women in my age group. I don’t want to rot in retirement and want women my age to feel the same way. I want them all to keep going. I have lost three husbands, all from heart disease. That has added to who I am. My most recent one was four years ago. But you know what? Life goes on. I have had to pick myself up and not mope around saying, ‘I don’t want to live anymore.'”
Lauren says this is why she particularly reaches out to women around her age who are widowed.
“I tell them to think about themselves now, try to think about what you can do in life. Honor him, but don’t let it stop you from persevering in life. I still do things to honor Buzz, my last husband. He worked in the FBI and was a hell of a guy. I look at his photo and his supporting me in all my pageants.”
Lauren looks to honor her late husband the best way she knows how.
“I’m going to go to this national [pageant] in Atlantic City, and I’m going to do it in honor of King Buzz, as we used to call him. He’s going to be on that stage with me.”
The national pageant in Atlantic City took place earlier this month. Although Lauren did not receive the title of Senior Miss America, she left the competition with the same strong head bearing her shoulders.
“I just wasn’t the apple of that particular panel’s eye! It’s all in the life of a pageant girl,” shrugs Lauren. “I’m proud of who I am, what I’ve done, and what I hope to continue to do.”