The Lawrence County queen, princess and little princess pageants were held Saturday, May 24, at Norma’s In-Line Fashions in Aurora.
“We had a pretty good turnout but we’d like to make this a bigger event next year and get more contestants. If you want to help, please get ahold of me,” said Norma Julian, pageant coordinator and host.
This year’s emcee was Larry Julian. He welcomed Emily Dunn, a student at Florida College in Temple Terrace. Dunn sang the national anthem and then Julian introduced last year’s queen, Allison Pettit.
Pettit introduced this year’s judges who were: Tabitha Julian of Springfield, Judy Dunn of Marionville and Donna Hillhouse of Aurora.
Pettit then introduced the 2007 Little Princess Madeline Roberts and the 2007 Princess Paige Wallace.
The talent portion of the contest followed with 10 contestants. The queen contestants had to participate in talent since the state fair competition requires a talent and the other contestants could compete in the talent portion if they choose.
The talent contest winner was Jessa Haley. She performed a dance. Haley is a sophomore at Aurora High School and enjoys reading, dance and babysitting. She is the daughter of Patty Jackson and Randy Haley.
Her prize for winning the talent contest was a $50 savings bond courtesy of Region’s Bank.
Other talent competition contestants were: Melissa Tate, Jessica Youngberg, Rebecca Callison, Steffany Duffy, Jessica Creech-Voskamp, Melissa Gutierrez, Lauren Eagles, Takisha Wethington and Brittany Weston.
Lauren Eagles of Mt. Vernon is the 2008 Lawrence County Queen. She just graduated from MVHS and is planning to attend Southwest Baptist University on the honors program this fall.
Eagles finished fifth in her class, academically. Her hobbies include horses, basketball, speech, AAU basketball, horse showing, FFA and the gifted program.
Prizes for the queen included $100 cash, $550 scholarship to Norma’s Modeling School, $100 savings bond courtesy of First Independent Bank, sash, crown and flowers.
Eagles will compete for the state fair title August 1 in Sedalia.
Other queen contestants were Brittany Weston, Takisha Wethington and Melissa Gutierrez.
This year’s Lawrence County Little Princess is Rebecca Callison. She is the 11 year-old daughter of Kristina Callison and attends sixth grade at Verona Elementary.
Callison is active with the Mt. Comfort 4-H Club and enjoys showing simmental cattle, her horses and dogs.
Her prizes included a $100 savings bond courtesy of Community National Bank, crown, sash and flowers.
Other little princess contestants were Melissa Tate and Jessica Youngberg.
Becca Owens is this year’s Lawrence County Princess. She attends Mt. Vernon Middle School and is the daughter of Anette and Buck Owens.
