THEN: Hoisted by a Seafair Pirate in 1956 is Seafair Queen Dixie Jo Thompson. (Courtesy Dixie Jo Thompson Porter)NOW: Wearing her 1956-57 Seafair robe, Dixie Jo Thompson Porter poses at Mirabella Seattle retirement community with a display of photos from her year in the queen’s role as an 18- and 19-year-old. (Clay Eals)
Published in The Seattle Times online on July 24, 2025
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on July 27, 2025
Nearly 70 years later, Seafair queen
looks beyond ‘bubblehead’ image
By Clay Eals
THEN: Grace Kelly as she accepted the 1955 Academy Award for Best Actress for “The Country Girl.” (The Kobal Collection / Associated Press)
Seattleites could be forgiven in 1956 when they opened their newspapers and thought the new queen for the seventh year of the city’s Seafair celebration might be Grace Kelly.
While her resemblance to the previous year’s Oscar-winning best actress was uncanny, the regal honoree was 18-year-old Laurelhurst resident Dixie Jo Thompson.
NOW: Dixie Jo Thompson Porter stands with her daughter Kim Brillhart while modeling her 1956 Seafair gown following a June 10 “Resident Revelations” speech at Mirabella. (Clay Eals)
Today, when daughter Kim Brillhart says others likely compared her to the movie star, the nearly 88-year-old — who uses her married name, Porter — scoffs at references to her appearance. “Maybe I look more like Grace Kelly than their dog did,” Porter says. “Really, are you kidding me? Well, I was blonde and white-skinned.”
The animated resident of the Mirabella Seattle retirement community wields a tongue both thoughtful and tart, countering what she says could be seem as the “bubblehead” image for a festival queen. Her observations frequently turn to a cogent conclusion: “Seafair was something that happened to me rather than something that I chose to do.”
THEN: One of six chatty but feisty columns that Dixie Jo Thompson wrote for The Seattle Times soon after her crowning in August 1956. Here, she wrote that because of the difficult, exhausting job, all she wanted was “to sit down and have a good cry. But I couldn’t. I had to get dressed and go someplace else again. … You must do what the public wants you to do.” (Seattle Times online archive)
Her fate, she says, was dictated by her parents, who determined that the Utah native and only child attend the University of Washington and join the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, which, she says, “assigned” her to compete for Miss University District. Winning that title eventually led to her being named the city’s “Queen of the Seas.”
It was a time (and perhaps still is) when society’s view of women focused on looks. To a degree, Thompson confounded that. Her 3.4 freshman grade-point average triggered this Seattle Post-Intelligencer headline: “Beauty, Brains All In One Royal Package.” But the paper also thrice reported her body measurements, even in a headline. Said another P-I head: “She Dimples Her Way To City’s Heart.”
THEN: Waving from the Seattle City Light float in the Capitol Hill parade on Aug. 8, 1956, are (clockwise from upper left) Queen Dixie Jo Thompson, state Republican and Greater Seattle leader William Culliton as King, with saluting Rainier Brewery and chamber leader Alan Ferguson, “ladies in waiting” and a faux soldier. (Seattle Municipal Archives)
Even then, she saw herself as “part of a fake kingdom, like being in the theater,” and she played the part to full expectations. Her oft-reported quote was, “It’s like a fairy tale.” In this volunteer role, she donned a crown and gown to smile and preside at countless events. She also endured repeated waist clutches from countless older men whom she dutifully kissed on the cheek.
Gradually, she left the role behind. A YWCA leader starting at the UW in the 1950s, she married Tom Porter, raised three children and became a financial adviser.
NOW: Dixie Jo Thompson Porter consults with daughter Jaimee Mader prior to her June 10 “Resident Revelations” speech at Mirabella. (Clay Eals)
Last month, as requested by a Seafair fan at Mirabella, she delighted a crowd of 139 with her life story and details of Seafair’s evolution as part of a “Resident Revelations” series. She told of her “personal fear beyond belief” of the unrestrained Seafair Pirates. “Sorry, pirates,” she said, “you can trash me sometime.”
THEN: About to be smooched by celebrities Bing Crosby (left) and Phil Harris upon their arrival in Seattle on July 30, 1957, is reigning Seafair Queen Dixie Jo Thompson. (Courtesy Dixie Jo Thompson Porter)
She also said she tired of visits from celebrities like Bing Crosby and Phil Harris, who “pawed me like I was some kind of cat” during required photo ops that she thinks influenced later Seafair changes.
Indeed, titles and programs evolved at Seafair over the years. What started as Queen of the Seas (1950-71) became Miss Seafair (1972-2024) and was replaced this year by a Community Hero. From 1950 to 1999, a King and Prime Minister were selected, but in 2000 the King became King Neptune, the Prime Minister was dropped and Queen Alcyone was added.
She cheered this year’s Queen Alcyone selection of former Seattle police chief Carmen Best. And with a grin, she cracked that since her younger years, “I have lost 5 inches of height and 22 pounds of weight, so yeah, this is what you’ve got to deal with now.”
NOW: Dixie Jo Thompson Porter chats with well-wishers following her June 10 “Resident Revelations” speech at Mirabella. (Clay Eals)
WEB EXTRAS
Big thanks to Judy Waring, Kim Brillhart, and especially Dixie Jo Thompson Porter for invaluable help with this installment!
No 360-degree video this time, but below you will find video of Porter’s Mirabella talk, along with a transcript. You also will find 6 additional photos and, in chronological order, 68 historical clips from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com, Washington Digital Newspapers and other sources that were helpful in the preparation of this column.
Click the above image to see Dixie Jo Thompson Porter’s one-hour talk on June 10, 2025, at Mirabella. The sound is a little murky, so click here to open a transcript of her remarks and use it to follow along.
THEN: Surrounded by civic leaders including Harry Strong, president of the University Commercial Club, left of her, and Mike Mitchell, Seattle City Council member, right of her, Seafair Queen Dixie Jo Thompson snips a ceremonial ribbon on March 29, 1957, to open a newly widened East 45th Street Viaduct to University Village. (Seattle Municipal Archives)THEN: Protected by an umbrella wielded by Harry Strong, president of the University Commercial Club, Seafair Queen Dixie Jo Thompson prepares on March 29, 1957, to cut a ceremonial ribbon to open a newly widened East 45th Street Viaduct to University Village. (Seattle Municipal Archives)THEN: Waving from the Seattle City Light float in the Capitol Hill parade on Aug. 8, 1956, are (above from left) Queen Dixie Jo Thompson and state Republican and Greater Seattle leader William Culliton as King. (Seattle Municipal Archives)NOW: In an alternate view, wearing her 1956-57 Seafair robe, Dixie Jo Thompson Porter poses at Mirabella Seattle retirement community with a display of photos from her year in the queen’s role as an 18- and 19-year-old. (Clay Eals)NOW: By request, Dixie Jo Thompson Porter models her 1956 Seafair gown following her June 10 “Resident Revelations” speech at Mirabella. (Clay Eals)NOW: Dixie Jo Thompson Porter holds up a photo display documenting her ungowned August 1956 visit while Seafair queen to the Yakima Firing Range. “Maybe I was the Hound Dog,” she says. The visit led to meeting her husband, Tom Porter, aide to the deputy commanding general of Fort Lewis. Tom Porter died in 2021.
