In 1956, KETC-TV from St Louis, Missouri brought 1200 children to tour Mark Twain points of interest. The Hannibal Chamber of Commerce announced that they would sponsor a contest amongst the seventh grade students in Hannibal to portray Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher in conjunction with this visit. Little did they know at the time that the Tom and Becky program would continue and celebrate its 52nd crowning of Tom and Becky in 2007.

The contest consisted of each school in Hannibal selecting one boy and one girl from the seventh grade to participate in the contest. The first committee from the Hannibal Chamber consisted of George Pace (chairman of the Chamber Tourist Development Committee), Woodrow Moore, A. G. Barnett, and Robert Welch. Members of the Missouri Press Association, the Mark Twain Research Foundation, and the Missouri Historical Society performed final judging. They were chosen based on illustrations from the first edition of Tom Sawyer and the Gilded Age. Decisions were made from costumes, personification, and personality. Final judging was held the morning of the tour.

On May 5, 1956, Hannibal crowned its first Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, Chris Winkler and Perva Lou Smith, in front of 1,200 St. Louis children. Thus began a program designed to have young people from Hannibal to serve as ambassadors for Hannibal and the tourist industry. Prior to the announcement, word of the event reached Walt Disney. Coincidently, Mr. Disney was opening Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland in June of that year and an invitation was extended to the winners of the Tom and Becky contest to participate in opening ceremonies.

The program became a yearly event. As word of the program spread so did the opportunities to be ambassadors grow. Tom's and Becky's have participated in parades not only locally, but nationally as well. They have made appearances in California, Washington, D.C., Florida, New York, Minnesota, Iowa, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, Kansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois and of course the state of Missouri over the years. They have visited Japan (twice), Canada (twice), and Mexico. They have made appearances at schools, libraries, ground breaking ceremonies, conventions, tour buses, ribbon cuttings, festivals, riverboat dockings, local functions, civic groups, state fairs, county fairs, etc. During the summer on Friday and Saturday you can see Tom and Becky strolling in the Mark Twain Historic District. They have greeted presidents, vice presidents, first ladies, and governors. They have had their pictures in magazines and newspapers around the world. They have been in movies, travel films, and on TV news programs throughout the United States. Each year they visit Calaveras County, California for the Jumping Frog Jubilee and Elmira, New York to represent Hannibal and their Mark Twain heritage.