The Year a Girl from Seguin became America’s JUNIOR MISS

“Unbelievably a highlight of my life. I mean, I don’t think a week goes by without it coming up in some way.”

Those are the words of America’s 1985 Junior Miss Valerie Lowrance Tyler as she reflected on the experience of earning the national title on live television 40 years ago.

As Seguin and Guadalupe County commemorate the 60th anniversary of Junior Miss, now known as the Distinguished Young Women program, Tyler says she can’t help but get emotional as she reflects on that moment when her life changed forever.

It was on that stage in Mobile, Alabama in June 1985, when the 18-year-old hometown girl from Seguin was immediately immersed into the national spotlight following these words, by Celebrity Hosts Bruce Jenner and Mary Fran, “And now… let’s meet America’s Jr. Miss for 1985 for the first time and that is Texas’ Valerie Lowrance!”

Replaying that moment in time, Tyler says she cannot help but be humble and appreciative of that once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But perhaps what makes the experience more incredible is the initial journey that started here at home.

“Honestly, it was a phone call from a wonderful woman in our community.  Debbie Dykes called me out of the blue and asked me if I had ever thought about participating in the Seguin Junior Miss program,” Tyler said. “And I answered honestly that I had never considered it. She began to explain the mission statement of the program and the categories for evaluation and helped me see that it was such a worthwhile organization with an opportunity to earn a great deal of scholarship money.

“Both of my parents were teachers and although they provided everything that my younger brother and I needed to the best of their ability, we knew that affording a college education was going to be difficult, so I was very interested in the scholarship money and I was very comfortable with the categories of judging.  She told me that she had been paying attention to the things I was doing in high school and in the community and encouraged me to participate because she thought I would be a strong candidate and have a great deal of success in the program.  I was still hesitant, so she asked me to come to the informational meeting where I met her daughter Judy Dykes Hoffman, who was the choreographer for the program, and all of the other local committee members. I knew right away after hearing about their program that this was something I wanted to do.  After I completed my applicant paperwork to participate, the Dykes family offered to sponsor me through their business, JC’s hot sauce.  I am forever grateful for her phone call and for her belief in me.  I had no idea at the time where that moment would take me.”

After a bit of that coaxing, Tyler claimed the Seguin Junior Miss title in the Spring of 1984 at the Seguin-Guadalupe County Coliseum.

Looking back, Tyler says clinching the national title might have just already been in the cards. Justifying that notion was going into the state contest in New Braunfels during the summer of 1984 where Tyler says she “went without a thought in the world about winning anything.”

“Funny story, that summer right before going to Texas Junior Miss, I was doing some cheerleading stunts and I broke my left leg and tore all the cartilage in my left knee and so I was on crutches and I thought I was not going to be able to go to Texas Junior Miss and I called our local Junior Miss committee and said I guess I need to resign,” she said. “Maybe I need to give up my title. Maybe you need to send the first runner-up because Seguin is not going to have a representative that can actually win Texas Junior Miss or win any scholarship money. There is no way I can win with a broken leg and the Junior Miss program in Seguin was wonderful. They were like Valerie we are sad for you that this is going to diminish your chances to maybe win scholarship money because a part of the program was about things that are done on stage but there are also scholarships given out for winning things like the judges interview and scholastic achievement and more than that, it is just a great opportunity to go meet 38 other women from the state of Texas and that is what this is about. So, we believe in you. You won the title, so you go and have fun.”

After a broken leg could not stop her, Tyler felt even more excited about traveling to the big stage for the America’s Junior Miss contest. But with 52 contestants – each representing a different state including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, Tyler says she couldn’t help but feel a level of defeat upon arriving at the airport.

“When I got off the plane in Mobile Alabama, I came face-to-face with 51 amazing young women who were confident, outgoing, brilliant and I was completely intimidated,” Tyler said. “I loved getting to know each of those amazing young women, learning more about them and their different lives, meeting many that had scored perfect scores on the SAT and were headed to the top universities in the nation, many of whom were some of the most talented people I’ve ever met in person, but I called my mom and dad the first night and told them to lower any expectations because there was no way I would even be a finalist.  I wanted to do my best, of course, and make Seguin and Texas proud, but I lost any hope of winning anything because of how impressive the other contestants were, and I focused on enjoying every moment of this exposure to different cultures and different experiences of the teenagers from living in different states.”

But of course, as fate would have it, Tyler’s journey that began in Seguin was far from over.

“In the end, there was a competition and that time finally came,” she recalled. “We began with two nights of preliminary competition and the 52 candidates were divided into four groups of 13. I was surprised that I won a preliminary award for my group of 13 for scholastic achievement and I was so honored and amazed, but I thought that would be the end of it. On the nationally televised finals night, after we did our opening routine, when they named the five finalists, I was completely blown away to be named as one of them! And then of course, I got pretty excited because since the national program was only going to be one hour long, most of it would be focusing on the competition of the five finalists so I just felt lucky and thought it would be fun for my family and my high school friends to get to see me on TV. And I was nervous beyond belief. But that was it. I still had no thought of winning. As we got down to the announcement of the winners, I was holding onto a potentially realistic hope that maybe I could be second runner up. When they announced the second runner up, my heart sank because I thought it was over. You can tell from my reaction — if you ever see the broadcast — that I was completely shocked when they called my name. It was the most amazing feeling to walk out to the end of the stage and receive the gold medal and the bouquet of flowers and hear the applause, but I was pretty much still in a complete trance like I was in a dream. I couldn’t sleep that night and it probably wasn’t until the next day when my parents and I sat down with the America’s Junior Miss executive director and began to go over my travel schedule for the year and my press appointments etc. that it finally began to hit me exactly what happened and how much my life was going to change.”

Within literal minutes of earning the title, Tyler says her life was filled with a “whirlwind tour” of fantastic memories – memories that included an interview on Good Morning America, an appearance on the Jerry Lewis Telethon, meeting a slate of celebrities, promoting the 100th anniversary of Coca-Cola (her favorite soft drink) and a much remembered personal visit in the Oval Office with U.S. President Ronald Regan.

The sequence of events that followed her throughout that year also saw her juggling her title responsibilities with preparing for college.

After earning over $30,000 in straight cash scholarships through local, state, and national contests, Tyler also saw more than $100,000 in scholarships to specific universities – many of which included full-rides to colleges all over the United States.

“I had been accepted to the University of Texas at Austin, but my parents and I had no idea how we were going to be able to afford to pay for four years of tuition plus the expensive room and board of living in Austin Texas,” Tyler said. “I graduated as a valedictorian from Seguin High School which included a small cash scholarship, and I had also been awarded a few other small scholarships from various local scholarships. But those local scholarships would barely cover one semester of learning while living at UT.  Remember this was 1985, so $30,000 went a very long way – much, much further than it goes today. And the Junior Miss scholarships could be applied not only towards tuition but also books and supplies, room, and board.  Thanks to Junior Miss, my entire undergraduate education was completely paid for through scholarship money. So, in reality my winning Seguin, Texas, and America’s Junior Miss also had a positive impact on my younger brother, Joey’s life. It allowed my parents to take the savings that they had for college assistance for me and apply all of it to his college education which helped him immensely and he is now a very successful choir director at Georgetown High School.”

In fact, Tyler says she credits the Junior Miss program for not only funding her education but also steering her on the right career path.

“During my travel with America’s Junior Miss, I met so many people and was exposed to so many career opportunities,” she said. “Just prior to graduating from UT with a degree in broadcast journalism, I had accepted a job in Lubbock to be a sports reporter and weekend actor for a TV station there.  But first, I had been invited back to Alabama to emcee the Alabama Junior Miss program. While there in Montgomery, I met the Governor of Alabama and ended up being offered a job to become his assistant press secretary. I moved to Alabama instead, right after graduating and starting writing speeches for the Governor and his wife and traveled with the Governor handling media relations and press questions for almost a year and a half. But believe it or not, I still had some scholarship money left from Junior Miss.  And I had always dreamed of going to law school. So, I returned to Texas, took the LSAT and got into the University of Texas School of Law. Again, I was so worried about how to finance law school, but Junior Miss scholarships covered my first year of law school, which gave me the confidence to start that journey.”

While it is sometimes almost impossible to put into words, Tyler says she believes this road to America’s Junior Miss helped to bring all her future pathways together.

“On the first day of law school, I met my husband, Craig Tyler,” she said. “We were married right after that first year of law school. After graduating and taking the bar, we moved to Houston where I worked as an assistant district attorney and everything that I have done in my life since then, stems from that.  In truth, Junior Miss not only made my education possible, and truly the dream of my brother’s college education possible, but it also put me on the journey that brought me my career, and more importantly, my husband of 32 years and our four children.”

Despite being filled with many personal memories of the program, it might perhaps just be the Seguin and Guadalupe County community who will forever be thankful for her talent and determination to represent them so well. 

“And perhaps the most touching thing was the celebration this community planned for me when I finally returned home after winning America’s Junior Miss,” Tyler said. “When I was finally able to get my first break to come home for a visit, it had been more than a month since I had been in my hometown. I was pretty tired and pretty homesick. I landed at the San Antonio Airport, and remembered now that this was prior to 911, and back in the days when everyone could just walk right up to the gate.  My national chaperone reminded me that when I landed, as was typical for all my trips, there might be a San Antonio reporter there ready to take my picture and ask a few questions. But I was blown away when I walked off the airplane into a full on celebration right there in the San Antonio airport!  Seguin and Texas Junior miss committee members were there with my family and Seguin dignitaries were there like the Timmerman Sisters and the Seguin High School band was there and played our fight song. And yes of course, there were TV cameras from the San Antonio TV stations and local reporters present but I barely saw them because all I remember seeing was my family and friends and what looked like the whole community of Seguin welcoming me home.”

That homecoming celebration culminated in hundreds of individuals cheering on their hometown hero and moving the party to the streets.

“As I walked through the airport to leave, there were literally hundreds of people lining my path clapping for me and holding banners,” she said.

“I couldn’t stop crying. And I walked outside to an even bigger crowd cheering, and a limousine that would carry me and my family home with San Antonio police escort and a full parade of everyone from Seguin. We had a huge celebratory procession all the way down Interstate 10. Once we entered Guadalupe County, our Sheriff and several deputies took over the escort and were later joined by members of our Seguin Police Department.  Starting miles outside Seguin, there were people on that route standing on the side of the road holding banners. The procession took me down to the Colosseum and outside on the gazebo where we had another full celebration. Then, I received the key to the city from Mayor Betty Jean Jones and a proclamation from the State of Texas from our wonderful State Representative Edmund Kuempel.  There were other speeches from our Guadalupe County Judge and Ronald Heinemeyer, my high school principal, as well as Texas and Seguin Junior Miss representatives and I was completely overwhelmed. After that celebration, as I rode in the limo with my parents, VJ and Voncille, and brother Joey back to our house on the east side of Seguin, we passed the high school where there were banners displayed and several businesses that had messages for me on their marquee, and when I turned onto my street, my neighbors had decorated the whole street up to our house with signs and flowers and they were all outside cheering for me. It was a wonderful community moment where I felt like all of us Segunites were celebrating together and I felt very loved.”

Despite the years that have come and gone, Tyler’s footprint remains legendary in the Junior Miss/Distinguished Young Women program, proving to all that anything is possible. Many folks still today recall that moment when they turned to their televisions that night. Others, some much younger, now find themselves searching online for that 1985 video evidence – evidence that they too can do great things if they just work hard and believe in themselves.   •