Meet Miss Somebody
from South
Carolina
X
Though not a sports lover, Dinah
enjoys a game of golf with her dad.
, AJk..T
Here is our first "unknown" cover giri
of 1961 a Dixie belle named Dinah Coggin
Photos and Text by OZZIE SWEET
ON the basis of my second swing through the
South scouting Miss Somebodies for family
weekly, I have to confirm what I only suspected the'
first time: popular legends of Southern hospitality
and the beauty of Dixie belles can't be overstated.
I scoured main streets, soda parlors, and high
school classrooms and saw scores of candidates. But
it was in Anderson, S.C., that I found Miss Somebody
honey-haired Dinah Coggin, barely 16 and as fresh
and winning as any fairy-tale princess.
The 5-foot 5-inch, 115 pound youngster is under
standably one of the most popular girls in her 11th
grade class at Hanna High School in Anderson. Al
though she has no "steady" and emphatically prefers
it that way, it would be something on the order of a
minor cataclysm in Anderson if our Miss Some-
' "' " ' ' ' ' - . . ..... y V I"'"""'
TOMB Ph. .
JmA
Prom night finds Dinnh displaying the poise and beauty for which Southern belles are noted.
body were found sitting at home on a date night.
At an age when many young girls are at the pain
ful change-over stage from tomboy to young lady,
Dinah is startlingly poised and feminine without be
ing movie-star sophisticated.
"All parents seem to remember when their daugh
ter was a tomboy," her mother, Jeanette Coggin,
says. "But Dinah never did undergo the usual meta
morphosis for the simple reason that she has always
been more interested in 'girls' things' than boys'
games. She struggles along at golf with her dad and
takes her turns at bat in her 13-year-old brother
Bobby's Softball games, but she'll be the first to admit
that she's not very good at either."
Right now Dinah is trying to decide on a college.
"I'm not getting very far, though," she admits. "I
can't decide whether I want to go to an all-girls' col
lege or a coed university."
"She really, wants to model more than anything
else," her mother says. "Dinah is a very normal teen
ager, and I think this is a normal ambition at 1G. If
she can model in her spare time and not let her
schooling slip, I think it would be wonderful."
Almost as much as modeling, Dinah looks forward
to summer vacation. That means a family tour
through Florida, where the Coggins lived until they
moved to Anderson six years ago, and a chance to
see old friends and relatives. It also means long days
at the seashore for Dinah and a sun tan that is the
envy of all her friends when she returns home.
Her greatest thrill? "That's easy. Being picked as
Miss Somebody. I've read about the previous Miss
Somebodies in family weekly, and I've always
thought to myself: 'Some of them are only my age.
If I could only be as lucky!' But it didn't seem likely
until you came along. Thanks for picking me."
I knew that she meant it. I left Anderson and Dinah
Coggin to find another Miss Somebody, feeling re
freshingly optimistic about our much-maligned, per
haps little-understood, teen-agers.
COVER:
Dinah Coggin, the first Miss Somebody of
19h'l on family Weekly's cover, lends her
wholesome ehnrm to the great outdoors.
Ozzie Sweet photographed her. See above.
Weekly
LEONARD S. DAVIOOW Cr, (.,( nnrf fMMvr
WAITER C. DREYFUS Vier 'rr-.idVnl
PATRICK . O'KOUIKE trfrrrliimg dirr-rlor
MORTON FRANK Wrrrlor o fnklMrr Krfnlioni
5nd oil odvnrtlilng communication to Family Wkly
I CI Id 4i,ki. rL: t u "
AddVfftl oil communication! about editoriol fe-oturei to
Family Wryokly, 60 E. 56th St., Ntw York 22, N. Y.
S, IHI, FAMILY WEEKIY MAGAZINE, INC.,
January 8, 1961
Board of Editors
ERNEST V. HEYN Editor.in-Chirl
BEN KARTMAN Kxrrnlt'rr rVrfilor
ROBERT FITZOIBBON .Wnnnuing rViM"
MARGARET BELL Failure Kdilor
PHILLIP DYKSTRA Art llirrrlor
MEIANIE DE PROFT Pini tVrMor
Bob Dritcoll, John Hochmann, Jerry KUin, Harold London,
Murray Millrr, Jock Ryan; Pef Opponhtimor, Hollywood.
53 N. Michigan Avt., Chicago 1, III. All right roitryc-d.