NATCHEZ — Since she was 9 years old this year’s Pilgrimage Garden Club Queen Virginia “Ginnie” Scarborough has spent every spring break in a hoop skirt.

While her college friends went off to the beach each March, Scarborough would trek back home for Spring Pilgrimage to welcome tourists to Shields Town House.

“I’d put on my big party dress; that’s what we called it,” Scarborough said.

She can remember years of allowing tourists to take a peek at her pantaloons, which only the children wore.

“It was so bizarre, they were always memorized (by the pantaloons),” Scarborough said.

It was embarrassing at first, but eventually she gave in and got used to it.

“Sure you can look under my skirt, no problem,” she would say.

And every spring when she danced in the tableaux, there would be the queen in her big, pretty dress.

“I’m sure every girl says this, but I would look up to the queen,” Scarborough said.

And this year, Scarborough will be the one the girls in the Little Maypole idolize.

Scarborough is the daughter of Jan Davis Scarborough and Bruce Scarborough, and the granddaughter of Joe and Grace Scarborough of Byram and the late Charles and Virginia Estess of Jackson.

She is a 2008 graduate of Cathedral High School and attends Mississippi State University, where she plans to earn a bachelor’s degree before attending culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu.

Scarborough credits her passion for cooking to her grandmother.

“My grandmother was an exptremely devoted and amazing cook,” Scarborough said. “I was always kind of jealous and wanted to know how she did it.”

Her dad’s culinary skills have also rubbed off on her. “I’ve always been interested (in cooking), but it wasn’t until recently that I decided to pursue as a career,” she said.