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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 1958)
What to be its like wed to m r n rss r?5 n v r f;v.-,v. -f 1. - V :mmmmm Their way of life was changed radically when William G. Giesse ignored his y wife's wish for a new stove. One of the first prizes received by Mrs. Helen Giesse after being named Mrs. America was a congratulatory kiss from Bill. by Al Ostrow I t was a wife's dream come true but a husband's nightmare. Radiant with triumph, Mrs. Helen Giesse was escorted to a throne of flowers and crowned "Mrs. America." Her husband, William G. Giesse, sat numbly silent in the cheering audience that packed the gaily decorated Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He experienced the same mixed emotions he had known when he survived a wartime mid-air collision of four Flying Fortresses over Frankfurt, Germany. What did he think? "I thought I'd been hit by a freight train. I wondered what would happen next. Helen . . . the children . . . my own life... How would all this affect us?" Giesse felt a friendly tug at his sleeve. It was the cheerful husband of a previous Mrs. America. "Listen, fellow," the predecessor soothed, "I know cactly how you feel. You're disturbed. You're afraid your whole life is going to be disrupted. It will be. But don't worry it won't be as bad as you think right now." Now that his beautiful wife has com pleted about half her one-year reign, Giesse is prepared to pass that same solace along to whoever is the husband of the next Mrs. America. He can also chuckle at the thought that flashed through his mind when Mrs. Giesse was crowned: "Why didn't I buy her that stove when she asked for it?" If he had, their five-year-old daughter, Susan, might never have had occasion to Billy,. 9, and Susan, 5, like Mommy's new title, but Bobby, I, reserves judgment. inquire, "Mommy, why don't you wear your crown all the time?" "Helen wanted a new stove," Giesse re called. "Being the usual kind of husband, I let her request go in one ear and out the other. Then she read that a new gas range was one of the prizes for the local Mrs. America contest." Bill Giesse was busy changing jobs he's an advertising agency account ex ecutive when his wife was chosen "Mrs. Cleveland." He was still absorbed in the problems of his new clients when a tele phone call from Columbus told him Helen had just been named "Mrs. Ohio." The new stove arrived at their neat white three-bedroom home in suburban Mayfield Heights, along with a new re refrigerator, a $500 wardrobe, and a new way of life. Absorbed in preparing an ad vertising campaign and coping with his problems as a member of the Mayfield Heights city council, Giesse didn't feel the full impact of the change until that fateful night at Fort Lauderdale. "My wife is a celebrity!" The thought hit him like a bolt,of lightning. Since then, Bill Giesse has heard him self introduced hundreds of times as "Mrs. America's husband." "I don't dislike it or enjoy it," he says frankly. "It's a wonderful achievement for Helen something that will always add sunshine to her life. But we both realize that it's not the most important thing that ever happened to us." Both are looking forward rather eagerly to the day next May when a new Mrs. America is crowned, and the Giesse family can resume normal living. 14 Family Weekly. November 23, I95
