BENTON DAY QUEENS FOR A DAY AGAIN

BENTON -- Lori Price of Benton was 5 when she won the Little Miss Neighbor Day contest in 1976 and 16 when she won the contest for the big girls -- Miss Neighbor Day -- in 1987. Now the manager of a construction company office in Sikeston, Price was one of the 30 former Miss Neighbor Days invited to appear at the 1998 contest Friday night.

The contests for Little Miss and Little Mister Neighbor Day and for Junior Miss and Miss Neighbor Day were the highlights of the first day of the fair, which also offered skydivers, exhibits, a carnival and country music by The Welters.

A number of the former queens came to be recognized at the contest. Luann Pfau was 16 and living in Kelso when she was named Miss Neighbor Day in 1972. "I was flabbergasted," she said. "I got to walk around as a queen for two days."

Pfau, who now lives in Cape Girardeau with her husband, Jim, is a registered nurse at St. Francis Medical Center and the mother two children, Erin, 14, and Matthew, 10.

Erin found her mother's Miss Neighbor Day dress in the attic a few days ago and tried it on. Pfau said she'd be proud for her daughter to enter Miss Neighbor Day, too, someday.

"It's a great community," she said.

Another former queen present was Amy Dannenmueller, Miss Neighbor Day of 1988. Dannenmueller also was Miss New Hamburg and went on to place in the Miss Cotton Carnival contest in Sikeston that year.

Dannenmueller also was 16 when she won the Miss Neighbor Day contest. The Kelly High School graduate lives in Chaffee now, is an accountant for a construction company and just passed her certified public accountant's exam.

Both Price and Dannenmueller said they still have the $50 savings bond they won.

Benton Neighbor Day was begun in 1925 by the Scott County Farm Bureau. In the early days, there were ball games and horse racing, recalls Gus Robert, the city's former postmaster.

"We also had boxing," he said. "A lot of them came from the CCC camp."

Herman Schwartz said his Shetland pony won all kinds of prizes at the fair during the Depression. Then as now, Benton Neighbor Day drew back people with ties to the area.

"They come from darn near all over the state," Schwartz said.

Benton Neighbor Day was discontinued during World War II. The Benton Chamber of Commerce revived the event and took over sponsorship 30 years ago.

The 1998 Benton Neighbor Day concludes today with a parade at 10:30 a.m., followed by an antique car show and antique tractor pull.

All kinds of contests, from horseshoe pitching to watermelon seed spitting, get under way at 1 p.m. A kiddie tractor pull is scheduled for 2 o'clock.

There also will be judging of the exhibits, which include field crops, arts and ceramics, quilts, food, crocheting and knitting, fruits and vegetables, needlework and home crafts, and woodworking.

The greased pole climb is set for 6 o'clock followed by the talent show, Karaoke singing and finally a dance in the community building.