In January 1953, there was some big news in the little Coromandel village of Te Puru. One of their locals, a talented 12-year-old girl called Kay Davis, had won the essay competition in the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, which scored her a new summer wardrobe and photoshoot.
It was the talk of the town.
“Mum had just picked me up from my piano lessons and we were walking home when the town store keeper came bounding out, shrieking, ‘She won! She won!’” recalls Kay, now 84.
“We didn’t know