Seventy years after a young 18-year-old woman stepped onto the stage and made history, the first Miss Hibiscus, Liebling Hoeflich, now Liebling Marlow has returned to the heart of the festival she helped begin.
While speaking during a morning tea with previous winners and current contestants, Marlow says she felt that, history came full circle as she saw Fiji’s Hibiscus Queen contestants join the breakfast table marking seven decades of the Hibiscus Festival.
Marlow says the occasion was more than a morning tea; it was a moment to look back on a remarkable journey that began in 1956, when she never imagined that entering a local carnival contest would make her name part of Fiji’s history.
At just 18 years old, Marlow was crowned the first Miss Hibiscus when the inaugural festival was held in Suva in 1956.
She says two of her friends secretly submitted her name as a contestant and what followed was a moment that would change her life forever.
She says that on the night of the crowning, when her name was announced as the winner, the young contestant was overwhelmed with emotion.
Marlow says she recalls just standing there and crying.
She says her winning moment came with its own unforgettable story.
She says she wore a yellow dress sewn by her mother, Faga Bentley, and the dress did not even have a proper zip but her mother found a way to keep it securely in place.
From an 18-year-old girl who never expected to enter a pageant, to the woman remembered forever as Fiji's First Miss Hibiscus, Marlow's legacy is woven into the history of Suva and the Hibiscus Festival.
The Hibiscus festival continues with a new Queen to be crowned on Saturday night at Albert Park.
