Q & A with Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queen Question: The Sweet Potato Queens were born on a gleeful St. Patrick’s Day, back in 1982, when you and a few friends decided to get Queened-up for local parade in Jackson, Mississippi. Did you realize that parade would begin an international movement for women? Jill Conner Browne: Yes, It was my Five-Year Plan. Are you kidding me? No! I had no idea I would become a cult leader! My only goal was to entertain myself—a goal that endures to this very day, I might add. Question: Tell us a little about the annual Zippity Doo Dah Parade that happens at the end of March every year. Women come from all over the world, wear sequins, and march with bands, raise money for charity, eat and laugh. How does it all come together? (Let us live vicariously!) JCB: We simply out-grew the other parade and started our own, which has been fantastic for the Queendom, the city of Jackson and most importantly, for Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children. Queens (and Spud Studs) start arriving on Wednesday of parade week--March 21-25 for 2012--and overnight the city is overcome with sparkle. It is four days of fantastic: Arts, Eats & Beats in the Fondren Arts District, The Come On