Added on July 31, 2017 Sara Swanson

Vicky Wurster to be crowned Manchester Sesquicentennial Queen

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Vicky Wurster, Manchester’s Centennial Queen in 1967, will be re-crowned Manchester’s Sesquicentennial Queen in 2017. Photo courtesy of Vicky Wurster.

This Thursday, during the evening Gazebo concert, the Sesquicentennial Queen will be crowned. Vicky Wurster (Vicky Roberts at the time) played a special role 50 years during Manchester’s Centennial celebration, serving as the Centennial Queen. Once she has been re-crowned this week, she will have the double distinction of serving both as Manchester’s Centennial Queen and Manchester’s Sesquicentennial Queen.

Although unanimously appointed by the Sesquicentennial committee this time around, Wurster won her position fifty years ago. “I remember the question the judges asked me back in 1967. ‘What does the 100- year celebration mean to you’. I said, “It is to remind us of all the wonderful people who lived here and founded our town 100 years ago,” she stated.

After the 1967 Centennial she went to school … and got a Cosmetology License. Then she went to work and put herself through business classes at EMU and WCC. In August of 1969 she married Ray Wurster. They had two girls, Annette in 1971 and Tricia in 1973 and she now has three grandsons. Her daughter Annette had one son, Brady (16). She passed away from Cancer in 2003. Her daughter Tricia is married to Josh Harju. They live in Tecumseh and they have two boys, Karl (8) and Nickolas (6).

Wurster states that she has had many great career opportunities. “I love to work! I have managed businesses, owned businesses and worked for some great employers,” she explained, “I just recently retired from St Joseph Mercy Chelsea Hospital in the Diagnostic Imaging Department.” In her spare time she cooks, sews, walks, plants flower gardens, cuts crosses and angels from wood, and travels a little. She currently has a booth in the Chelsea Antique Mall where she buys and sell antiques and collectibles.

Looking back over the last fifty years, Wurster states, “Fifty years is a lot to look back on! People, places and issues … The changes are amazing. There has been a lot of good and some sad. For the most part I have had a great life. The most important part for me is having the people I love around me to enjoy the good, encourage me and help me through the sad.”

Wurster would like to thank Ray Berg and all his committee members and volunteers, “You have all worked hard to make the Celebration of 150 years a success. Believe me when I say, ‘You will not be forgotten!’ I thought when the 100-year Centennial was over… it was all over! Well I am proof… it is not over because you say I am still it. Fifty years later I am still running around in a yellow dress with a crown on my head! So, in 2067 you will all be right back here planning the 200-year celebration. Thank you again for a job well done.”

Her final advice,”Take time to step back and enjoy your work!”