Johnson, Charly 2025-06-29
This interview features Charly Johnson—a prominent figure in the debutant and beauty pageant sphere around Texas. Johnson describes her early involvement with beauty pageants alongside Guy and Rex in El Paso, who mentored her into her adult life as a beauty pageant director. She explains the history behind debutantes, specifically Lubbock and Texas debutantes, and her family’s involvement in the Lubbock Symphony Guild’s debutante program.
General Interview Information
Interviewee Name: Charly Johnson
Additional Parties Recorded:
Date: June 29, 2025
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Interviewer: Kylie Kincaid
Length: 01:55:26 (1 hour 55 minutes)
Abstract
Introduction and background information; College experience; Working pageants; The El Paso pageant; Running pageants and training girls for pageants; talent; Judging and voting in pageants; how the pageant experience shaped her; What a pageant day looks like; how pageantry has changed; Misconceptions about pageantry; Debutantes; Jewel Debutante; Volunteer work through debutantes; being on the board; Closing statements
Access Information
Original Recording Format: born digital
Recording Format Notes: patrons may listen to audio in our reading room
Transcript: transcript available on dspace
Thank you for your interest in this oral history interview. Our oral history collection is available to patrons in the Southwest Collection's Reading Room, located on the campus of Texas Tech University. For reading room hours, visit our website. Please contact Reference Staff at least one week prior to your visit to ensure the oral history you are interested in will be available. Due to copyright issues, duplications of our oral histories can only be made for family members. If an oral history transcript has been made available online, the link will be provided on this page. More information on accessing our oral histories is located here. Preferred citation style can be found here.