If you were old enough and living in Amsterdam in 1983, the name Ruth Zakarian is one you don’t forget. Today’s Amsterdam Birthday Blog Celebrant was a strikingly beautiful young lady, who beat out over 70 other teenagers to win the Miss New York State Teen USA pageant in the fall of 1982. She then travelled to Lakeland, Florida the following August, where she competed in and won the first-ever Miss Teen USA pageant. Amsterdam went wild as the entire community…

You can read the rest of this story in my new book “A Year’s Worth of Amsterdam Birthdays.” To order your copy, click here.