It was always Shelby Purdy’s intention to compete again for the title of Mrs. Asparagus after she made first runner-up to Beth LaPorte’s win in 1996; but as it is for many married women, life got busy and that goal was set to simmer on the back burner. She had children to raise, a full-time job to work, and eventually she and her husband moved to West Virginia, where they lived for 11 years before moving back to Michigan in June of 2024.
It took almost 30 years to find the right time and place to give it a second shot. In that time, her daughter, Kendra Larios-Mendez, took home the Asparagus Queen crown in 2018. Shelby was, understandably, ecstatic for her daughter, following with anticipation on Facebook in West Virginia as the winner was announced. Despite her excitement, she still joked she couldn’t “let that little squirt beat me out.”
It seems to be a full-circle experience for mother and daughter. Shelby ran in 1996, coming close to the title, with aspirations to run again. Shelby reminisces about how Kendra recognized the significance of the festival for her mother and was inspired to follow in her footsteps. Kendra first ran and lost in 2017, but had the freedom to give it the second shot her mother never had the following year, to eventual success. This only motivated Shelby to not brush off her dreams, and she, too, won big on her second chance. So clearly, the second time’s the charm for mother and daughter both.
Shelby shared a scrapbook of her year as runner-up and turned to photographs of Holland’s Tulip Festival. Shelby’s husband is holding Kendra up on his shoulders, and she is silhouetted in front of the parade and waving to her mother on the National Asparagus Festival float. “That’s my favorite photograph, ever, of my whole reign,” Shelby reminisces, tapping the snapshot.
From 1996 to 2025, the competition has changed tremendously. In 2013, the title changed from Mrs. Asparagus to the Asparagus Queen, opening eligibility to include single women. The pageantry is less of a focus now, replaced by a more casual, interview approach. Shelby has conflicted feelings on the matter, “I think it's a good thing, but I also would like to see that pageant back.” She admits she “always enjoyed makeup and hair and clothes, you know, the girly things in life.”
The one thing that hasn’t changed is the asparagus trivia questions plucked from the iconic fishbowl. Shelby could have easily reviewed the 1996 study guide to prepare for this year’s competition. She also found a paper displaying the names of the emcees hosting the pageant in 1996, one of whom was Ryan Walsworth, father of this year’s runner-up Haley Walsworth. Those little details are just one aspect of this small town that Shelby adores, and what tempted her back to Michigan after living over a decade in West Virginia.
“Even though I’ve been gone 11 years, I came back. It just feels like home, a hometown… You run into people and they’re like ‘Shelby, how are you?’ But then you have a whole new generation of people that I’ve never even met, you know? Children of the children of the children.”
Flipping through her scrapbook, Shelby recollects her favorite memories of her year as runner-up: traveling throughout the state of Michigan, participating in other festivals, visiting the Cherry Festival in Traverse City and attending a tourism event at Chicago’s Navy Pier. While Shelby loved the parades she attended as runner-up, what she really desired from the position of Queen was the opportunity to represent the area she’d come to love and educate on the health benefits of asparagus.
“Half a cup of cooked asparagus gives you about 30% of your daily (necessity) of folate if you are in your childbearing years,” she explained.
Folate is an important aspect of healthy cell growth, essential during pregnancy and found in many prenatal vitamins. Back in 1996, this was an important cause for Shelby, as she was in her mid-20s and having children. She also explained how asparagus helps fight the development of neural tube defects during pregnancy, a health benefit particularly close to her heart following her own experience with child loss. Now that she is finally Queen after 29 years, Shelby has the opportunity to advocate for asparagus with the passion she wanted to in 1996.
Now a Fremont resident, Shelby spent the weekend at John Gurney Park with her family, which gave her the freedom to participate in every single activity the NAF offered, meeting the residents of Oceana County and beyond. Shelby greatly enjoyed Your Generation in Concert Friday, staying much longer than she expected and fielding compliments from attendees that it was the “best kickoff to the NAF they’ve been to in a long time.”
She enjoyed her walk in the Ryan Walsworth Spear-It 5K and wants to make it a goal to work up to jogging for next year’s. Her asparagus jelly won 2nd Runner-Up in the Taste of Asparagus contest, and she was happy for the opportunity, as Queen, to join in tasting the competition. Her favorite dish was a creamy asparagus soup, but she had high compliments for the spicy asparagus stock, Greek-style salad, spritzer and cupcakes. Perhaps the greatest highlight of the weekend was attending the Fly-In Pancake Breakfast at the Oceana County Airport on Sunday, which had a record-breaking crowd of 750 attendees, when Dan Hallack offered her a spontaneous flight in his vintage Army plane over Oceana County.
The Joan Glover Royale Parade was more than enough to satiate Shelby’s desire for pageantry as she regally waved from her float, tiara on her head, dressed in an emerald green gown she made herself. Her youngest son even surprised her at the parade with her two youngest grandchildren, and did not realize the significance of the picture he took, his daughter waving at her grandmother on the Queen’s float, a mirror of that beloved picture of Kendra.
With an underdog story such as hers, Shelby had heartfelt advice to share with this year’s participants (whom she is still so shocked she won over, knowing the stacked competition she was up against) and anyone else interested in entering the contest. “Don’t give up… sometimes it's hard to fit all of those things into your schedule, but if you have the opportunity to do it, just keep doing it. Don’t ever give up.”
As for her scrapbook, she has plenty of space at the end to add on her upcoming year as Asparagus Queen.
