At the conclusion of the 2013 Ms. Senior Sweetheart Pageant, one of the country’s only beauty contests for ladies over 65, Rita Ann Battram, 86, doubted she’d won the crown.
Although she nailed the talent competition with a dance routine that—hip replacement be darned—ended with a show-stopping straddle, then charmed the judges during the panel interview (“I might be blind in one eye and I don’t see well with the other, but I’m 86, and I’m going to keep going!” she said), when the emcee read aloud the names of the first few runners up, Battram’s wasn’t called.
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