On May 26, the eve of Memorial Day, at the Cherry Grove Community House, at the Arts Project of Cherry Grove (APCG) Membership Party, Shirley Shapiro was acclaimed, by audience applause, as Grove Homecoming Queen 2013, beating four other contenders. One of the Shapiro Sisters, central to the annual Doctor’s Fund benefit show, Shirley is the longtime life partner of past HQ Legs Labohn, also known as Sylvia Shapiro.
Hostesses for the contest were Panzi and Bella, but before they appeared a faux Panzi, in the person of Bobbie Green, and a faux Bella, Joann Tavis, soon to be displaced by the real MCs, took the stage in their stead. HQ 2012 Robin Kradles took the final walk of her reign, singing, “I took a trip on a train and I thought about you.” When she crowned Shirley, she did so, at first, with no more than a cardboard crown, apparently bent on keeping the real one for herself, but ultimately surrendered the true diadem.
The contest was a close one and Bella and Panzi called for a revote to ascertain which semi-finalist was the actual winner. The runner-up was Whore D’Oeuvre, one of the M & Ms, perhaps better known to the Ice Palace audience than to the APCG membership. The other contestants were perennial contender Jo Jo Gerard, who proclaimed herself a Cherry Grove historian; Buff Maid’s Robin Banks, who promised—threatened?—to rule with an iron fist; Mother—“I believe this is where the angels live;” and late entry Juanita Martini. Asked what she would like to do as HQ, Shirley had said, “As Homecoming Queen, I would like to do a little something extra to save the Community House.” Asked why she would have liked to be Queen, Whore D’Oeuvre responded, “Because this is not the Pines.”
As Queen, Shirley will lead the Fourth of July Invasion of the Pines. Mr. Fire Island Leather 2013 Candido Soares, elected the week before, has, as is traditional, offered to be the new Queen’s escort for Invasion.