Meet Miss Somebody
from South
Carolina
I r
(1
Though not a sports lover, Dinah
enjoys a game of golf with her dad.
r
i 1 f
Here is our first "unknown" cover girl
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 S-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-
Prom night finds Dinah 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 16. 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 Dinali
Coggin to find another Miss Somebody, feeling re
freshingly optimistic about our much-maligned, per
haps little-understood, teen-agers.
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Tin- x- irTfiT-f ihto-mrii
COVER:
Ditini Coogin, the irst Miss Somebody of
1961 on Family Weekly's cower, lends her
wholesome clmrm to the great outdoors.
Oz;ie Sweet photographed her. See abotie.
family
Weekly
January 8, 1961
LEONARD I. DAVIDOW 'mrirtYiit anil VMithrr Board of Editors
WAITER C. DREVFUI I'irr 'rrtidVnf
PATRICK E. O'ROURKE taYi-rfutinu hVrrlor
MORTON PRANK D.rrcfor a VMi.hrr Krlatitm
Sand all advortUing communication! to Family Wttkly,
IS N. Michigan Ave.., Chicago 1, III.
Addrcu all communications about tditorial feature! to Bb Driscoll, John Hochmann, Jorry Klajn. Harold London,
Family Wotkly. 60 E. Jolh St.. Now York 22. N. V. Murray Mill.r. Jack Ryan; Pom Opponhoirrwr, Hollywood.
1HI, EAMHY WEEKIY MAOAZINE, INC., IH N. Michigan Ay... Chicago I. III. All right! rrd.
ERNEST V. HEVN Editor-in-Chief
SEN KARTMAN Kxrrntnv Editor
ROtERT flTZOIMON Mamtaino Editor
MAROARET REll hralurr Editor
PHIIUP DYKSTRA rlrt Oirrrliir
MEIANIE DE PROFT M Kditor