Miss Florida Citrus

The Citrus Bowl crowned a queen in conjunction with the Florida Citrus Growers dating back to 1924.

She reigned over the Citrus Expo & Florida Citrus Festival even making appearances at the World's Fair. From 1924-1983 a Citrus Queen was crowned.

In 1983 the selection process changed from a traditional pageant to three days of interviews, videotaping, and media/communications. It was judged by leaders in the citrus industry, because in 1984 the position of Miss Florida Citrus was introduced and was a full-time, salaried employee of the Florida Department of Citrus.

She traveled throughout the year as the spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Growers. Miss Florida Citrus survived the early 1990's "Royalty Raid" that cut quite a few bowl queen programs in Florida with a quote in the article 1 More Court Folds: Orange Bowl Queen pointing out that she would still reign but as an official with the Florida Citrus Showcase.

It states, "'She gets paid $18,000 a year plus expenses and travels 20 days a month around the world promoting citrus,' said special events coordinator Christa Deason. 'It's a real job, not just making appearances on floats.'"

Unfortunately, the early 2000's hit and the last Miss Florida Citrus was crowned in 2003. However, the title was brought back in 2015 and is now a preliminary to Miss Florida and Miss America with the first titleholder, 17-year-old Summer Foley, was crowned on March 21st, 2015.

History of Titleholders:

Sue Scarbrough won Miss Citrus 1963