I give up too quickly. A couple weeks after I wrote to the address that I found for 1956’s Peanut of the Year Ruth Figi, I reckoned the note had not reached her. The internet has a lot of out of date addresses for people who have since moved or died. Or perhaps she had just chosen to ignore the answer. So, I published my blog post about the Peanuts of the Year contest.

It turns out that she was just being cautious, making sure that this stranger who was reaching out to her was not some kind of dangerous weirdo. Having received assurances that I am a totally non-dangerous weirdo, she gave me a call, two days after the article was published.

Ruth had quite a year in 1956. Early in the year, she had ignored her parents admonition not to go night skiing. After all, her parents were busy working at the Hyland Hills Ski Area’s coffee shop, what else was she to do? On the slope, she collided with another skier, and ended up with a broken leg.

But that was January. By July, good things were happening. On the day before Independence Day, the Minneapolis Star announced that Charles Schulz would be taking part in the big “Aquatennial Star Night and Coronation”, and that there was a contest related to the appearance — Schulz would choose the winner of a “Peanut of the Year” contest, choosing a child who either reminded folks of an existing Peanuts character or would make a good Peanuts character themselves. To be a part of the contest, someone had to write a letter to the Star, explaining why a specific child would be a good choice. Ruth’s mother, Ida Figi, knew that her child fit the bill, wrote a letter, and sent it in.

Apparently, it was a good letter. On July 27, the day of that Aquatennial event, the finalists’ names were published — two girls (Ruth, and Vicki Erickson) and two boys (Donald Wiklund, and Barry Erickson — no, he wasn’t Vicki’s sister. This is Minnesota. Ericksons abound.) One of these people would go on to win a $100 savings bond; the remaining three, $25 bonds.

Ruth remembers a lot about the event, because it was impressive. She recalls the movie star guests, Natalie Wood in a gorgeous white gown and Barbara Lang in bright red; they were quite impressive to see in person when you’re in the midwest and used to only seeing movie stars on the big screen. But she was also impressed to be seeing Cedric Adams in the flesh. Adams did have some national presence (he had a five minute segment on CBS radio every morning), but locally he was huge; he anchored the local news, had a column in the local paper, hosted other TV shows as well, was constantly on the radio, and so he was a big part of every day life in the area.

As part of the judging, each of the kids was interviewed. Two of them were interviewed by Cedric Adams, but Ruth and the fourth child were interviewed by George Grim, another local columnist and news figure. Ruth even took a walk with Charles Schulz.

As Ruth climbed the steps to the platform, she said a prayer — not a prayer to be a winner, but a prayer that if she lost, she would be gracious about it. It was a righteous concern, but it was one that proved immaterial when Schulz picked her as Peanut of the Year.

The decision, Schulz told her mother, had nothing to do with the interview. He had already made his decision, based on the letter she had sent. And what did that letter say? Unfortunately, beyond the fact that her mother compared her to Lucy, that key information is lost. Ruth never saw the letter, and there’s no one around to remember it… but Ruth has her suspicions. “I think it might have included the story behind the dress I wore to the Aquatennial,” she reveals. “My mother was a seamstress, and made me a beautiful new dress, with navy blue polka dots, for the Aquatennial.  And at school that year, there was a boy who asked if he could kiss me.  How many times did he ask?  I don’t remember, ha ha.  I had an idea.  I told him yes, he could, on the last day of school.  I promised him I would wear a new dress!  (The one with polka dots!)  Finally, the big day, the last day of school came, but I got the measles and stayed home!  My mother laughed and said instead of wearing a dress with spots to school, I was the one covered in spots!”

Ruth went on to live a life. She attended a church bible school that took her to Mexico City for a while. For college, she went to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. It was different than she expected; she always pictured colleges as brick, ivy-covered places, but ORU had opened in 1963, so the architectural basis was different than the well-known East Coast colleges, and the ivy had not had time to accumulate. Oral Roberts himself had said “I had new ideas and I didn’t want to put them in old buildings.” It took adapting to, but she grew to love the place. She studied journalism and wrote for the school paper.

Her first job out of college was for a movie studio — not the sort of feature film outfit that might come immediately to mind (Minnesota ain’t Hollywood), but a producer of corporate films and commercials. She expected she would get a bit of training for this new realm; instead, they threw her into the deep end, telling her on the first day that she had to rent a helicopter and a Winnebago for Bonanza star Lorne Greene, who was there to do some work for Toro, the Bloomington, Minnesota-based manufacturer of riding mowers and other such equipment. How does one rent a helicopter in Bloomington, Minnesota? That was for her to figure out. (Answer? Phone book, yellow pages, under “Business Aviation”.)

She moved on to other jobs, spent most of her working life doing secretarial work. She retired just a few years ago.

How did being the one-and-only Peanut of the Year (as that contest was never repeated) effect her life? Not much in ways that would be visible to others, except, for a while, the nickname “Peanuts”. But it actually had a huge impact. “I have never forgotten the experience, and it really was one of the defining experiences of my life.  It is who I am. It is a huge part of my life. To be associated, forever, with the marvelous man, Charles Schulz, is the best of earthly honors. I have often thought, I wouldn’t want any other.”

Ruth LOVES, all capitals, Peanuts. She considers the strip “so Minnesota”, and has pored over strips to see Schulz being philosophical, a comedian, and an artist. She has just stared at single panels, soaking in how much they communicate with their deceptively simple lines. A few little tics of a pen and Schulz could give a character an eye roll that would say so much. She considers the characters in the strip to be “some of my very dearest friends — how they look, what they say, and just everything about them.”

Since there was no follow-up contest, she remains Peanut of the Year, seventy years later. Given the ageless world of Peanuts, where after 50 years in the strip no one had even started high school, that seems appropriate.

Share the news!