JUANITA CARPENTER, 1954-56

Home: San Diego , CA

Married name: Juanita Carpenter Richardson

Husband's name: John (deceased)

Children: Julie Anne and Dyniese LeeAnne 4 grand and step grandchildren

Current occupation: Retired from Instructional Media Center for San Diego City Schools

Past jobs/life situations that have contributed to the richness of my life: I've worked lots of different places. One job that I enjoyed the most was working with one of my husband's inventions, a computerized game, in the 1980s. Marketing and PR was one of my jobs as well as executive secretary and vice president for more than one of my husband's companies.

In the early 1960s, I performed with the first group of of Chargettes for the San Diego Chargers. We marched and we danced and I occasionally performed as a solo twirler for them. I also performed in parades and on TV shows.

There was a group called the Salmas Brothers who enjoyed a long run in San Diego. Because I was the Golden Girl, anytime I was in the audience they had me get up on stage and dance. When they were booked into the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas I got to dance there too.

Hobbies/passions that I enjoy: I'm totally involved with my little grandson and daughter who live with me. At one time I loved ballroom dancing and playing the piano, and enjoyed being in theater and variety shows and putting on productions.

Still involved in twirling? Not now. In the past I taught professionally for a studio and on my own. As a volunteer I coached twirlers, cheerleaders, and the drum corps at St. Charles Elementary and Junior High where my daughter went. They were all in one group. In the small school of 200 we had 40-50 girls marching. My last performance was with the Purdue Alumni Band in 1995.

What made/makes the Golden Girl position so special: It opens the doors to many other areas in life. I also think it helps for discipline of one's self. There were things I got to do because I was Golden Girl in the Midwest, like attend the Governor's Ball, perform at the Indianapolis 500, and even performing at the 500 again 10 years later. It just opens a lot of doors to helpful life experiences and fun!

How being Golden Girl has shaped/impacted my life beyond Purdue: It's everything I said above. Also with people from the Midwest , because so many people know about the Golden Girl, it's a good conversation piece. They always want to know about my experiences.

Favorite memories from being Golden Girl: I have so many I don't know where to start.

(Before meeting Al Wright and being recruited to come to Purdue) I was all set to go to Denver University because I wanted to be a theater arts major. To go to a Big 10 school that I only saw on newsreels on Saturday afternoon at the movie theater, that was really heavy stuff to me. To get to campus and find 17,000 students - that was double the population of my hometown in Colorado - all of it was mind boggling. Then to come out on the field and have people stand up and cheer when I performed, it absolutely blew my mind!

Although I was blond before coming to Purdue one of my mentors in twirling persuaded me it would be showier if I bleached my hair out like she did. I couldn't find what she recommended and we left it on too long. It came out too silver and some of my ends broke off. I had to cut my hair pretty short because it was a mess. It was kind of sad.

I had clothes (and a style) that came with me from west. I think I was only girl at Purdue with bleached hair, and I had my ears pierced (which almost no one else did).

One day when I was going to class in a slacks outfit and hoop earrings my roommate told me I couldn't wear earrings with slacks. I had to have hose and heels on.At that time I was first female solo twirler in the Big 10, let alone the fact that I was wearing a short skirt and sequins. That was all shocking with the bleached blond hair. It did cause a few hardships.

The Friday night before the IU game I started bleaching my hair late at night and I fell asleep about 3 a.m. with bleach on my hair. The band bus left early in the morning for the IU game without me. The Big Bass Drum crew told Dr. Wright to go on, they had to go back and get something they forgot, without telling him what they forgot. To wake me up, they beat on the walls and door where I lived at Bunker Hill , an old military hut turned into student housing. I woke up to find the bleach dried on my hair and snow on the ground. I washed my hair and put on my gold suit, my mouton coat, and my leg make-up. We didn't have pantyhose so Dr. Wright had us use leg make-up so our legs would not look blue in the cold. When we pulled up in Bloomington the band was headed onto the field and I ran through a snow pile to reach them. I got snow in my boots and it was freezing cold, but I had my leg makeup on! It got a little runny but I didn't turn blue! I spend most of my time that day in the bathroom trying to dry out my boots and adjusting my leg makeup. (Proving that Golden Girls are not above the rules, Wright called her on the carpet for the incident and gave her demerits for missing the bus.)

We also went to Notre Dame. Certainly Notre Dame didn't have girls then, and I showed up with my short skirt. The guys were hanging from the trees to watch us. Some of the crazy ones, there were about 20 guys, made a human sidewalk for me to march on. I can't remember if I stepped on them or marched around them.

Two nicknames followed me around at Purdue. The band called me "Sunshine" and always sang "You are my Sunshine" to me. One time one of the cheerleaders yelled "You're neat, Neets! " and it stuck. One of my college friends still calls me Neets.

I remember that they asked girls from different dorms and sororities to be dates for a dance with guys from Annapolis or West Point . They had stiff starched shirts and their cuffs were like cardboard. One wrote a thank you note on his cuff that he gave to me. It was very tender. One time I got a cigarette from a guy who asked me to smoke it, put it out when I was through and send it back to him with my lipstick on it - which I did!

During fraternity rush week, I twirled on the lawn of the Sigma Nu frat house. They thought it would impress rushees if they could say a frat brother dated the Golden Girl (Juanita was already going out with a Sigma Nu man), so they asked me to come over and practice on their front lawn where the rushees could see me.

I'll always remember something Al Wright said to me, this girl from a little farm community of 8,000. At the time I was teaching at a summer camp at Pepperdine and Al was out there. Peggy Lee was playing at a big club in Hollywood and I had wanted to go really bad. The camp director asked Al and another band director, Vernon Hooker, if they would take me. When we were standing outside in line waiting to go in, I commented about how great I thought Peggy Lee was. Al said to me, "You're every bit as great in your field as she is in hers." I just flipped through the sky.

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