Genevieve Buchanan
Toronto Daily Star, May 16 1930
When I saw this, I wondered: did "Lei Queen" have the same double meaning in 1930 as it does today? I poked around a bit, and found one source that stated that "lay" as a slang term for "have sex with" first appeared in U.S. slang in 1934. If true, being crowned the Lei Queen of Hawaii in 1930 would not have led to snickers.
Searches turned up:
- A University of Hawaii directory from October 1927, in which Genevieve Buchanan is listed as a second-year education student who had withdrawn.
- A program from a December 1928 University of Hawaii performance of Twelfth Night in which she is listed as an usher.
- An ancestry website entry for Genevieve Buchanan Parker, who was born in Hawaii in 1906 and passed away in 1990. I have no way of knowing whether this is the same person as the above.
Created August 5, 2025.