Nellie Ortega never thought she would be a runner up for the
local Ms. Senior America pageant at age 64.
Gilroy – Nellie Ortega never thought she would be a runner up for the local Ms. Senior America pageant at age 64.
Most people think that they must be beautiful and thin to enter a pageant, but this pageant is not about the beauty on the outside.
“The Ms. Senior California pageant program is not a beauty contest,” said Marilyn McCabe-Kohler, the pageant’s statewide director. “It’s a program that looks for the inner beauty, women who have accepted their roles, and have been role models, and have stepped up to the plate.”
 Ortega fulfilled each and every quality required for this program, McCabe-Kohler said. She stood in the spotlight for the first time in her life, which took a lot of courage, given the one week of preparation she had for the pageant that took place in Santa Clara.
“I have more white in my hair, and I had just gotten a haircut, I’m not a thin person, I’m a full-sized woman but the issue was having something to wear,” said Ortega.
The competition has three parts – modeling evening wear, delivering a 35-second philosophy of life and showing off a talent, Ortega said. This year, Ortega sang the love ballad “Amor, Amor” in Spanish, pulling from her Latino heritage. Her philosophy of life included the idea to give a smile to those who need it – it could change their lives, she added.
Ortega is the only Gilroyan who will have the opportunity to compete for the title Ms. Senior California.
California has the largest senior pageant program in the nation with 74 women from Santa Clara to San Diego competing.
Fannie Curro, a Hollister resident, won first place at the local Ms. Senior America pageant.
It’s often a challenge to convince women in “the age of elegance” – those over 60 – to take stage, Curro said. But she did rope her friend Ortega into participating. Ortega and Curro will compete against a dozen other women in the statewide contest come September. The one chosen Ms. Senior California will go on to represent the state in national competition at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas.
