1950 Orange Bowl Queen La Dene Van Wagoner Martin was born August 3, 1926 in Midway, Utah. She married US Navy officer William C. Martin in New York on July 26, 1951. Bill Martin passed away in 1980, and La Dene passed away in 1998 at the age of 71. They are buried in Salt Lake City.

A very pretty girl with a cute figure. Whoever she was/is I'm sure she had fun that day!!

To me she looks like La Dene Van Wagoner, the 1950 Orange Bowl Queen. If she is, there's a lot more to add. Below (left) La Dene is getting crowned by actress Colleen Townsend, and next to that picture she is serving orange juice at the Miami train station to Santa Clara Broncos football players John Hook (left) and Jerry Hennesy (right).

Orange you glad she's sitting in a Cadillac? Her juicy swimsuit adds a lot of zest to the car!

for your funny, "pithy" comments. First laugh of my long, hard day & night. :) When I looked at this picture I thought those have to be grapefruit. Then I read the title and discovered they were oranges. In my neck of the woods, our grapefruit looks like these oranges. In answer to BillT, I don't think they were physically prettier than the girls today just more innocent maybe? Going by the girls I ran with back then, yes innocence. Innocence and morality makes any woman "prettier". Just the way it is.

She may be posing in a car covered in oranges, but clearly she is not riding in it. Nobody is driving that car anywhere. No way to step on the brakes, for one thing. I also think she is sitting on a stool/ledge set up or built across the transmission hump of the back seat, with her legs dangling into the front seat. The oranges were added after she was seated.

among the oranges.

Stop the pithy comments.

I didn't know tribbles came in orange.

Over her left shoulder, a 1949-50-51 Plymouth Roadster Convertible. My first car was a 1951 Dodge Wayfarer Roadster Convertible. Wish I had it back!!!

Can we assume that the difference in the colour of the oranges from the front to the back seats is due to polarized glass in the windshield?

[Maybe, but it would be a result of the windshield being tinted, not polarized. -tterrace]

I found this description of some photos in the Look Magazine collection -- pictures from "Orange Bowl City", Jan. 9, 1951 include "a woman in a bathing suit riding in a convertible filled with oranges."

Since not that many women, even in Florida, are inclined to ride around in Cadillacs packed with fruit, I think this must be the picture mentioned!

sometimes you should.

Were girls prettier back then?

but I can't find a navel anywhere.

the car was a lemon.

Cutie in Cadillac Rises Above Citrus Calamity.

After tiring of being simply Julie Jones, things just got better and better for Julius after accepting that life changing part time summer job in Orange County.

This looks like some kind of Florida fantasy come to life. Is this what they mean by a "bumper crop"?

they got that woman on top of all those oranges without creating a total mess.

Police are investigating the death of a man hired to drive a a model in a parade celebrating this year's orange harvest. The Coroner believes he died of suffocation.

Every seventeen seconds, somewhere in America, a PR flack goes over the edge.