ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270009
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: beth macy
SOURCE: BETH MACY
When Dotty Talbott says it's ``not a beauty contest,'' she means it.
``I ain't no mud fence, but I ain't no beauty either,'' says the Dublin resident who in 1991 won the coveted Miss America crown of the senior set - Ms. National Senior Citizen.
In these dog days of beauty pageants, the 71-year-old retired business professor is issuing a challenge to all area women old enough to be grandmas: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to slap the notion of the young, celluliteless cover girl right in the wrinkle-free face.
Blond may be beautiful, but gray is gorgeous, too.
Talbott and other members of the Ms. Virginia Senior Citizen Pageant board are trying to recruit potential glamour grandmas for the Aug. 22-24 pageant, to be held at Virginia Western Community College.
How is her pageant different from, say, the Miss Virginia pageant that starts today in Roanoke?
* ``There's not an anorexic person in the group,'' says Sue Hill, one of the organizers.
* Resumes are not required - so they can't be fudged. In fact, when Talbott took her country-bumpkin character, Arbutus Arbuckle, to the national competition in Illinois - wowing the audience with her mountain humor for the talent portion of the pageant - judges didn't find out until later that she's a professor emeritus of New River Community College. With a master's degree.
``They couldn't believe it,'' she says. ``They thought I'd fallen off a turnip truck in some mountain holler.''
* The costumes. Young beauties have been known to spend upward of $1,000 on their asset-enhancing outfits.
Dotty's bag lady costume? A blouse from Goodwill, a skirt from the Salvation Army, one of her husband's old long-underwear getups, with the legs and arms cut out. For a grand total of $1.25.
Plus a pair of hot pink high-top sneaks from Wal-Mart.
And no - repeat, no - "swim" suit.
* Nary a senior contestant tapes up her breasts, buttocks or thighs. These women have earned the right to sag - and to be proud of it.
``It's all about showing personalities, not swatting flies by swinging your hips,'' Hill says.
* No one tries to legitimize the senior contest by declaring it a ``scholarship competition.'' These beauts could teach all the rest of us a thing or two.
``It's all about showing that older people have beauty, inner beauty,'' Dotty says. ``That we're not just sitting around in rocking chairs mildewing.
``There are more laughs than you can imagine.''
* And lastly, the makeup. No sponges, brushes and trowels necessary.
In fact, the most makeup Dotty uses to complement her costume is an eyebrow pencil.
She uses it to black out her front tooth.
Rules and entry forms can be obtained by writing to Talbott at P.O. Box 239, Dublin, Va. 24084.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: FILE 1992 For the talent portion of the Ms. Nationalby CNBSenior Citizen pageant, Dotty Talbott performs as a country bumpkin
character named Arbutus Arbuckle.