Two former Cleburne ‘Misses’ — 50 years later
Posted by Taylor Short - Cleburne Times Review on Jan 5, 2010, 14:48
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Two Cleburne High graduates reigned as Miss Texas and Miss Texas USA. They recently spoke about their rise to the crown and their life after passing the torch.
Miss Texas 1953, Paula Lane Muckleroy
At CHS in the early ’50s, Paula Lane quickly established herself as a class favorite, garnering several awards, including Most Popular, Most Beautiful, Homecoming Queen and Band Carnival Queen.
When she graduated in 1953, a call from the local paper opened up a door to the world.
“First it started with Jack Proctor that worked at the Cleburne Times-Review. He called me and asked if I would represent the Cleburne Times-Review in the Miss Lake Whitney pageant, and I said sure. It sounded like fun,” she said. “And when I won, they said ‘Well, you’re going to the Miss Texas pageant from here.’ So, I thought that sounded like fun too. So, I went to Galveston to do the Miss Texas pageant, and when I won that, they said, ‘Now, you’re going to Miss America.’ ”
Even after earning the recognition of her classmates, Lane never thought about pageantry; it was something to do that summer before heading to the University of Texas, she said.
While representing Texas, Lane was invited to the “Dave Garroway Show” in New York, the “Steve Allen Show” and the winter carnival in Winnipeg, Canada.
“I had to drop out of the University of Texas that year because of all that other stuff going on,” she said, and she never regretted the choice. “So, then I got married and never went back to the University of Texas, which I wish I had more time there.”
Lane married Mike Muckleroy, a retired CEO of Enron Liquid Fuels.
Although they now reside in Florida where they enjoy spending time with friends and traveling, they rank themselves with the most fervent of Texans.
Someday, when the time is right, Lane said, she hopes she can return to the Lone Star State to be closer to her children in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona.
“We have wonderful friends in both places, but right now with everything going on here, it’s just kind of hard to move,” Mike Muckleroy said. “I was born in Giddings, and she was born in Cleburne. We’re the most loyal Texans to the core.”
As the couple both spoke on the phone from Florida, Mike offered his honest opinion of Miss Texas 1953.
“Uh oh, what’s he going to say?” Paula said.
“If she wasn’t listening, I would say the same thing, so it doesn’t matter,” Mike said. “She won ‘Miss’ everything years ago because she is one of the nicest, kindest, most thoughtful people that you’ll ever meet in your life. And her friends are legion, and they are loyal. She keeps in touch with them, I know she’s contacted someone she went to high school with in the last few days. There’s a really deep-rooted niceness about her, and her loyalty extends to everyone ...”
“That’s enough, Mike,” Paula said.
“Well, that’s not enough, but I’ll quit.”
Miss Texas USA 1956, Jo Dodson Caudle
Cleburne-born and raised, Jo Dodson Caudle’s path to the crown began much like Lane’s, except Caudle had already competed in several beauty pageants.
“I started as Miss North Central Texas Fair and Rodeo in the rodeo arena in Cleburne, Texas,” she said proudly. “That was my first beauty contest.”
Caudle was popular at CHS too, listed among the “Who’s Who Around CHS” in the 1956 Santa Fe Trail.
She was the feature editor at the Yapper school newspaper, president of Barton House, Chapel and Concert Choirs in addition to many other organizations.
“I was Miss Texas actually the year that I graduated from high school. From there, I was in the Miss Lake Whitney pageant, and that was a feeder pageant into Miss Texas Universe in Long Beach, Calif.,” she said. “I modeled for 20 years after that, and that all came about as a result of being in the Miss Texas pageant.”
She placed fourth at the Miss USA pageant and was voted Miss Congeniality, leading her to a career in fashion, starting with a promotional deal for Catalina swimsuits.
“As soon as the contract was over, I signed with a sportswear company and with Seventeen magazine. I traveled several years doing promotions with Seventeen magazine and the Thermo-jac Sportswear company,” she said. “We went all over the country doing contests where the young ladies would come into the store and try on the clothes, then we picked a local Miss Thermo-Jac, a state Miss Thermo-Jac and there was a national Miss Thermo-Jac who was featured in Seventeen magazine.”
After many years promoting clothing, Caudle moved to Dallas and became a representative for Apparel Mart, which allowed her to travel to major national markets.
She also spent four years as the regional vice president with Bill Blass Limited and regional vice president for Ciao Sport before retiring in 1991.
From high fashion to Hill Country, Caudle teamed up with Bob Phillips of “Texas Country Reporter” and moved south.
“He and Cristy Carnes have a ranch just out of Kerrville, called Escondida Resort. And I moved from Dallas to Escondida to help Christy get the hotel open,” Caudle said. “That was five years ago, and I just liked this area so much and made so many wonderful friends that I just decided to stay in this area.”
Now living in Bandera — which she proudly notes is the cowboy capital of the world — Caudle works at the Escondida Resort a couple days a week but said her main responsibilities are with the Bandera Texas Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“It’s super to work with Jo. She is definitely an ambassador and she meets and greets the guests that are coming to our area,” said Patricia Moore, director of the bureau. “Beauty pageants are obviously about people that are beautiful, but Jo is beautiful from the inside too, and our guests recognize that, and they always walk out of here with a smile and an appreciation of the information she gives.”
Although she loves the Hill Country, Caudle has plenty reason to travel back north, with sisters in Cleburne, the Mountain Valley estates near Joshua, and one in Plano.
“My biggest thrill was for my 50th high school reunion. I was Coming Home Queen, and I think that’s probably the biggest honor that I ever had,” she said. “I have very fond, special memories of going to school in Cleburne. It was a happy, eventful, life-forming situation.”
Both former ‘Misses’ expressed love for Cleburne and their high school.
And unlike some of today’s highly-publicized pageant winners, neither Lane nor Caudle were involved in outrageous scandals.
Instead, they were Cleburne girls among the best of the Texas beauties.
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