Lauren Butts, 18, a senior at Durant High School, was named the 2008 Tomato Queen at last year’s Ruskin Tomato Queen Pageant.
This year’s contest will focus on inner beauty, organizers said. lkindletampatrib.com RUSKIN – Longtime South Shore residents have come to expect an annual rite of passage this time of year – the competition for the crown and title of Tomato Queen. In recent years, the event included pretty young girls and teens wearing long, flowing gowns who vied in a pageant-like contest. The 2009 contest will go back to its roots, said Fred Jacobsen, president of the Ruskin Community Development Foundation. “We will name an adult Tomato Queen and King, much like we used to,” Jacobsen said. “But we’re looking at the event not so much as a beauty contest as we are an inner-beauty contest.”
Jacobsen said the event will now be patterned after the annual honorary mayor’s race hosted by the Ruskin Chamber of Commerce.