A gown worn by Carol (Olson) Larsen while representing North Dakota at the 1960 Miss USA Pageant is on display at the Emily Reynolds Historic Costume Collection on the fourth floor of the Family Life Center through Nov. 15. Larsen studied at NDSU (then North Dakota Agricultural College) from 1956-60. She was elected Homecoming queen in 1959.
“Roy C. Pedersen, promotion manager at WDAY-TV, insisted on my entrance into the Miss Fargo Pageant after I was selected as NDSU's Homecoming queen,” recalled Larsen. She went on to win the Miss North Dakota Pageant.
Larsen wore the gown in the evening gown competition at the pageant. Its theme was “Cinderella,” Larsen said. “My gown was admired by many contestants and by pageant officials. It was made to order by a firm in Texas. I brought three gowns with me to the pageant. One for the Parade of States (borrowed from a sorority sister), one for the Boardwalk Parade where I was selected for interviewing on the NBC Network and this gown for competition.”
Larsen recalled that during an NBC interview, “I had an opportunity to say that I was a graduate of NDSU. That was important (to me) because the name was changing from the North Dakota Agricultural College to NDSU. Students at NDSU were instrumental in making the name change happen.
“Without NDSU, none of these amazing experiences would have been mine. The Atlantic City Pageant was exhausting. but a fabulous experience that opened many doors for me in the years following the competition,” Larsen said. “I worked at WDAY Television in Fargo, WCCO Television in Minneapolis, was named the field editor of Better Homes & Gardens Magazine, and worked as a TV, radio and modeling talent in Philadelphia before returning to the Midwest to raise a family of three children with my husband, Lloyd R. Larsen, an engineering graduate of NDSU and quarterback for the NDSU Bison football team.