Mary Louise Whiteside Denton
Mary Louise Whiteside Denton was born April 8, 1911 in Oklahoma City to James and Mary Whiteside, a direct descendant of Daniel Boone. She graduated Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1933 and became the head of the local Federal Economic Relief Office located in the Bath County Courthouse in 1935. She married A.J. “Red” Denton the following year and eventually the couple settled on West Main Street in 1944. In addition to being president of the Women’s Club on two occasions, Mary was president of the Owingsville Consolidated School PTA and chairperson of the Bath County Memorial Library. She was also instrumental in organizing the Bath County/Owingsville Chamber of Commerce. Outside her busy community schedule, she found time to travel and visited all over the United States, Britain, Scotland and Europe.
When Randolph Richardson contacted Mary Denton to help organize the May Day Festival in 1954, a committee was established that included Phyllis Byron, Mrs. R.L. Nickell and Mrs. D.W. Doggett. Mary and Phyllis were charged with transferring ordinary high school girls into elegant beauty pageant contestants and a queen to represent the horse show and Bath County. The first twelve contestants were chosen from Owingsville, Salt Lick, Sharpsburg and Bethel schools and rode through town on floats May 1, 1954, marking the start of a Bath County tradition. The pageant was held at the Owingsville High School, now Bath County Middle School, at 7 p.m. with a show featuring the Arthur Murray Dance Team, a singer, and minstrel act. A fashion review was held after the festivities, an event that Mary and Phyllis played an integral role in organizing. After the judges tallied and made their decision, Beverly Fryman from Bethel was crowned the first Bath County May Day Queen.
The hard work and dedication of Mary Louise Denton and Phyllis Byron insured a successful inaugural May Day and set the standard that still stands sixty-two years later. The pair continued their role through the years, with Mary focusing more on the parade floats later on. Phyllis became pageant director in 1962 and later ‘retired’ from the May Day committee, passing away in 1980; Mary also reduced her May Day role in her older years, but revitalized and hosted the tea social in her 90’s to keep the tradition she helped create a part of Bath County’s social fabric. As years passed, more women became involved with the Women’s Club organization and the May Day Committee, one of the more visible was the late Faye Davis who took the reigns as pageant coordinator from 1968 until 1990.
Mary Louise Denton led an accomplished life as an active community leader and organizer; she enjoyed her days with a smile and pep that refused to lie down with age. She was a member of the Owingsville Methodist Church for an astonishing seventy-five years, serving as Sunday school teacher, the organist and choir director. Mary was bestowed many awards for her accomplishments, such as the Founder’s Day Award at the May Day Festival in 1981 and becoming an honorary fifty-year member of the Owingsville Women’s Club. She passed away after a lifetime of distinction on March 9, 2013, at the age of 101 years.
Throughout the years, it has been the men of any community that have been awarded the praise and accomplishments while women were shown as standing idly by. If any woman can be noticed as a community voice and motivator, in Bath County, it would be Mary Louise Denton. Not only did she help create a long standing tradition within our community with the May Day Festival and pageant, she held important roles in organizations that stitched together the fabric that we call Bath County. Story compiled by Rob Kiskaiden.
