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1960 Miss Clearwater Helen Zeigler dies at 65

By BETSY BOLGER-PAULET
Published September 30, 2005

Helen Zeigler loved to write and owned the copyright to 50 poems and song lyrics. For years she was a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association, which supports prospective songwriters.

After she married her high school sweetheart in 1961, she pursued a career in real estate and became a prolific writer.

Helen Marie (Smith) Zeigler, who in 1960 was named the fairest of all the young women in Clearwater, died Tuesday (Sept. 27, 2005) at Largo Medical Center under the care of family and Hospice of the Florida Suncoast. She was 65.

At 19, she was crowned Miss Clearwater and then went on to compete in the Miss Florida pageant. Her husband, George E. Zeigler, said she maintained her beauty and grace until the end. After suffering a seizure, she was diagnosed in January with a brain tumor but remained active and even played golf up until June.

Mrs. Zeigler, who married George, her high school sweetheart, on Aug. 5, 1961, was known as Helen Marie Smith when she competed in the local and state beauty pageants.

She was the daughter of Lena and Grover C. Smith and first came to the area in 1948 with her family from her native Nankipoo, Ga. She completed elementary school in Safety Harbor before the family moved to Indiana.

In 1955, the family returned to Safety Harbor, and in 1958 she graduated from Clearwater High School.

Two years later, when she was crowned Miss Clearwater, she was living on her own in an apartment on Clearwater Beach's palm-lined Bay Esplanade and working as a clerk for Florida Bond and Title.

The company and her apartment were owned by Irma and George Daily, her sponsors in her first beauty pageant, Miss Clearwater Beach. Later, in the Miss Clearwater and Miss Florida contests, the Dailys continued to support her as members of the Clearwater Beach Association.

In June 1960, at the Miss Clearwater coronation ceremony in the former Clearwater Municipal Auditorium, the 19-year old was described by a Times reporter as a "happy-eyed brunette ... (who) wore her crown with sure poise, but gasped, "It just couldn't happen to me. I can't believe it!"

Two months later, the new Miss Clearwater competed in the 1960 Miss Florida Contest in Sarasota. Another Times newspaper account reported audience response to her participation in the talent competition:

"Helen Smith, Miss Clearwater, gave members of the audience goose bumps with a gripping reading of a monologue, written by a friend, "My Dream Seems So Real.' The piece deals with a nightmare about being in a totalitarian state concentration camp. Miss Clearwater's dream seemed real, not only to her, but to many in the audience."

While the reading she so artfully presented in the pageant wasn't her own work, Mrs. Zeigler did go on to become a prolific writer herself. She owned the copyright to 50 poems and song lyrics and for several years was a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association, a group that provides resources for prospective songwriters.

Since 1962, when she converted and became a devout Catholic in order to marry, she was a member of St. Cecelia Catholic Church of Clearwater.

Shortly after competing in the state pageant, she married Zeigler. Before she died, the couple celebrated 44 years of marriage quietly at their favorite steakhouse, E&E Steakout Grill in Belleair Bluffs.

While writing was her joy, Mrs. Zeigler's 30-odd-year career was in real estate. Her husband worked as a sales manager for RJR Nabisco Food Group out of Chicago.

The couple lived three years in Kankakee, Ill., and 27 years in Downers Grove, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, before he retired in 1994 and they returned here to enjoy the sun and sand of their youth. They lived 12 years in Belleair before moving to Largo.

Mrs. Zeigler continued to work locally, finally retiring after five years as sales manager for Bobby Byrd Realtors in Clearwater.

Beside her husband, survivors include three daughters, Debra Marie Stonikas, Bloomington, Ill., Jacqueline Marie Zeigler, Port Matilda, Pa., and Octavia Lee Miles, Winona, Minn.; two sisters, Betty Sue Smith, Clearwater, and Donna Faye Holton, Superton, Ga.; and seven grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Cecelia Catholic Church, 820 Jasmine Way, Clearwater, with burial following at Calvary Catholic Cemetery. The family has asked for donations to the Red Cross or Hospice of the Florida Suncoast. Rhodes Funeral Directors, Druid Chapel, Clearwater, is in charge of arrangements.

[Last modified September 30, 2005, 01:35:17]