The 2008 Miss Coos County Fair Queens from left are Nicole Johnson, 18, from Coos Bay and Danielle Crockett, 17, of North Bend. - World Photo by Madeline Steege

Being a Coos County Fair and Rodeo queen isn’t just about pomp and circumstance — it’s a lot of hard work.

Just ask Nicole Johnson and Danielle Crockett. Both understand the responsibilities and personal involvement that go into representing Coos County.

Of course, it’s not all hard work. It’s fun and there are other benefits, including clothes, travel, new riding saddles and a scholarship.

On a balmy, rainy afternoon last week, last year’s queen, Johnson, 18, and the current fair queen, Crockett, 17, sat down and discussed what it meant to be royalty. Johnson wore a blue shirt and a black cowboy hat. Crockett, dressed in a white fringed red dress, wore a white cowboy hat emblazoned with her tiara.

The road to becoming a fair queen starts with the application, which Crockett and Johnson described as lengthy and detailed. Requirements for the position include being 16 to 19 years old, unmarried and never having been married, childless and a resident of Coos County, said Kathy Mortensen, a member of the Coos County Fair Committee. Mortensen also serves as a chaperone for the queen.

There’s also one big requirement: A would-be queen must have her own horse and, most importantly, be able to ride it.

Crockett, a member of the 4-H Club, started riding ponies when she was 2 years old. Johnson also began riding at an early age.

After applying, contestants are invited to tryouts, consisting of several riding components, including reining patterns and a rodeo flag run. Each of the contestants performs before four judges.

For this portion, duct tape comes in handy, Johnson said. Some contestants use the tape to hold down their cowboy hats as they ride, she explained, by placing a piece of tape on the inside of the hat and sticking it to their forehead. The tape keeps the hat from falling off during tryouts and appearances.

And for a would-be queen, keeping your hat on is a big deal. In fact, there is a rule about a queen’s hat hitting the ground, Crockett said.

“(They say) if it hits the ground, your head better be in it,” she said.

The competition also includes a personal interview with contestants, who answer four impromptu questions posed by the judges, present a three-minute speech and 1 1/2 minutes of modeling.

Johnson said she wasn’t nervous about the competition.

“It was a lot more fun than it was stressful,” she said.

New this year was a focus on etiquette. Each contestant attended a luncheon with the judges, who took notes on their manners and politeness, Crockett said. The luncheon with the judges is important to display how well a would-be queen holds herself in a formal setting.

“There’s no throwing food and drooling is out,” Mortensen said, smiling.

After all the categories have been completed, the judges tally the scores and announce a queen and a runner-up, Mortensen said. This year’s runner-up was 16-year-old Shelby Moody.

A queen’s duties include a lot of travel. In her capacity as a representative of Coos County, she might travel to Powers, Florence and Coquille. Occasionally, she might visit Eugene and Sutherlin. And because most of the travel is paid for by the queen and her parents, there is a lot of fundraising involved, Mortensen said.

A fair queen raises money for her expenses in a number of ways, Johnson said, including selling advertising banners, holding car washes, bottle drives and horse shows.

For Johnson’s mom, Dawn Schmidt, support from the community helped to make her daughter’s reign as queen very rewarding. Schmidt and her daughter work at Fred Meyer in Coos Bay, which gave Schmidt time off and a lot of flexibility so she could drive Johnson to her appearances, she said. For liability reasons, the queen is not allowed to drive the trailer she uses to transport her horses.

Being a fair queen is a full-time job, Mortensen said.

“You live your summers for the fair and rodeo,” she said.

And no, the tiara that each queen receives isn’t very heavy, both girls said, but wearing it for a number of hours does tend to put a strain on the neck.

After Crockett was chosen the new fair queen in September, Johnson gave her a gift bag containing Tylenol, duct tape, bobby pins and chocolate. The Tylenol is for the occasional headaches involved in the job and the bobby pins help keep the hat on, Johnson explained.

While being Coos County Fair and Rodeo queen is not a paying position, each queen receives a scholarship, Mortensen said. Johnson was awarded a $1,000 scholarship, when she became queen. The committee will hold a fundraiser in March to raise money for Crockett’s scholarship, she added.

“It’s not about a paycheck,” she said. “They get to be the queens of their local rodeo.”

Johnson is a graduate of Marshfield High School. She’s currently attending Southwestern Oregon Community College for her associates in arts degree. She hopes to transfer to Oregon State University and study to be a veterinary technician.

Crockett, currently a senior at North Bend High School, plans to attended Southwestern after graduating, to be a maternity nurse.

For Johnson, her reign as the queen — the travel, the pomp, the circumstance — was an experience she’ll never forget and was definitely worth her effort, she said.

“I would do it all over again in a heartbeat,” she said.