By Gary Lloyd
TRUSSVILLE — Vera Bryant has now been crowned Miss Hewitt twice.
Bryant was the first-ever Miss Hewitt Pageant winner in 1939. Now retired to Elmcroft of Grayson Valley, Bryant wanted to stand on that stage again, tiara placed atop her head.
It started around Christmas when Hewitt-Trussville High School Alliance Club sponsor Simona Herring, an English and speech teacher at the school, took club members to Elmcroft for a Christmas party. There, they met Bryant, who told them about herself.
Former Miss Hewitt Vera Bryant is crowned again.
photo by Ron Burkett
She also told them she would like to be re-crowned Miss Hewitt.
“Let me see what I can do to make this happen,” Herring told her.
Herring spoke to theater teacher Paula Brown about the possibility. It happened over the weekend at the 2015 Miss Trussville Pageant.
“It was wonderful and a real tear-jerker,” Herring said.
A program at Elmcroft called “Second Wind Dreams” allowed the re-crowning to happen.
Vera Bryant waves to the crowd over the weekend.
photo by Ron Burkett
Bryant, 93, attended Chalkville Elementary School and the former Hewitt High School in the Cahaba Project. She met her husband, Tebo Bryant, there. He played football and she was a cheerleader. They graduated and got married in 1939, the same year she won the pageant.
She and Tebo started the Bryant and Co. construction company, which she took over after Tebo passed, and ran until she was 85. She had three children: Wayne, Mack and Missy.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.
