Betty Trichler, O.C. Fair Queen, 1949

Linda Nemchock of Costa Mesa recently stumbled across the photo I posted last year of her mother, Betty Trichler-Ficovic, who was the first Orange County Fair queen crowned at the new permanent Fairgrounds. "I printed her picture from your site, and she was very excited to see it," Linda wrote. "She is 79 years of age. She loves to talk about being the 1949 Queen. She also was an actress in Hollywood for a time... "

Linda continued, "She had a stage name of Betty Dean. She roomed at RKO and I have some pictures of her and Hugh O’Brien during their early acting stuff and photo shoots at Del Coronado. She only did a few Westerns, Two Gun Lady (1955) was one of them. She did date O’Brien, Johnny Stompanado, was very good friends with Vic Damone and Nicky Blair. She wasn’t in Hollywood very long, maybe a couple of years, and then began her family. ...She once re-visited the OC Fair when Bob Hope was there, and got to go on stage with him when he was entertaining quite a few years back. "

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Posted below is a recent photo of Betty and Linda together. Linda forwarded the clippings (mostly from the Huntington Beach News) and photos that appear in today's post.
Linda asked if I thought this would make a good story for one of the local papers. I said I thought it would be a great idea and have held off until posting anything until now. (There's no sense killing the story by scooping the paper.) Ultimately, the result was a front-page article in yesterday's Daily Pilot.