Vivian Ackerman, also known as Mrs. U.S. Savings Bonds, pins a medal on former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the United Nations in 1961.

Photos courtesy of Vivian Ackerman

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She hobnobbed with everyone from big city mayors to coal miners, Eleanor Roosevelt to Lassie.

"I think I covered 75,000 miles that year," says Tucsonan Vivian Ackerman, 80, who in 1961 wore the coveted title of "Mrs. U.S. Savings Bonds."

This was no honorary title. For a solid year, Ackerman crisscrossed the country exhorting her fellow citizens to buy bonds.

"It was a holdover from the war, when savings bonds were seen as patriotic," says Ackerman. "It was all run by the Treasury Department."

Was it ever. Here's how Treasury rolled out her press release:

"Lovely Vivian Ackerman, who has silken black hair, dark brown eyes, a warm smile and a musical voice, is the new Mrs. United States Savings Bonds of 1961."

The release went on to detail how Ackerman would appear at plant and industrial rallies, schools and civic organizations, all in an effort to promote savings stamps and savings bonds.

If anyone could do it, she could.

Married to Harry Ackerman, who would one day be elected to two terms in the state legislature and then go on to serve as Pima County Attorney, Vivian was a mom of three by 1954.

"I had three kids in diapers and I nursed them all," she says.

Though "shy and deathly afraid to speak," she did help her husband campaign for county attorney in 1958.

Two years later, the Mrs. Arizona competition came knocking. "I had these three little kids, Harry was in office, I didn't have the time. But Harry said it would be good publicity."

So she filled out the forms. The race was narrowed to three candidates, with Ackerman the only Tucsonan.

"They held the judging at the University of Arizona home economics department, with home economics professors as judges," says Ackerman.

"I had to bake and ice a cake from scratch, make a refrigerated dessert and a casserole."

After winning the state title, it was on to the Mrs. America competition, held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in June of 1960.

Once there, Ackerman, who had already written an essay on thrift, was grilled, along with other candidates, by a panel from the Treasury Department.

"They asked if we could give up the Mrs. America crown if we were named Mrs. U.S. Savings Bonds."

Figuring she didn't have a chance at the Mrs. America title, Ackerman said sure.

"The next night they held a banquet, with the finalists having to give an impromptu speech." Though nervous and brief with her remarks, Ackerman won.

"The next morning, I had more pictures taken than I ever thought possible. I had to keep changing outfits."

Even so, she still had to finish up all those pesky homemaking contests for Mrs. America. "It was very tiring," says Ackerman. "It was not a beauty contest."

Soon as the contest was over, she hit the road as Mrs. U.S. Savings Bonds.

"I have the keys to cities all over the country," says Ackerman, who was flown in a helicopter alongside the Golden Gate Bridge, given a harbor fireboat salute by the Seattle Fire Department and lowered into a Montana coal mine.

She presented a recognition pin to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the United Nations, and hobbled on one foot in front of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.

"I had broken my toe in my hotel room, so I had a high heel on one foot and I was barefoot on the other," says Ackerman. "There were photos the next day in all the papers."

She also made a public service film with America's favorite collie. "I was seated right next to Lassie."

Every night, she called Harry and the kids, trying to make it home whenever she could.

At the end of her reign, she handed off her title to the next Mrs. U.S. Savings Bonds and happily returned to her former life.

In 1962, Harry became a diplomat and they moved to Washington, D.C., then Panama, Ecuador and, finally, Guatemala.

"We took all three kids to Panama," says Ackerman, who credits her savings bonds tour with giving her newfound poise and confidence.

"I was very shy, and this brought me out," says Ackerman, who returned to Tucson in 1983 after Harry retired. He died in 2003.

Next week, Mrs. America comes to town, in a competition that has morphed from homemakers to beauty queens.

But there will be no Mrs. U.S. Savings Bonds category. Hasn't been for years.

"It was something worthwhile to promote," says Ackerman. "But I don't think it has the cachet it did then."