MISSISSIPPI WELL REPRESENTED IN MISS AMERICA

The Miss America Pageant was held and televised last night.  This year's Miss Mississippi contestant was/is Chelsea Rick, who is from Fulton, MS.
Fulton is less than thirty minutes from Tupelo and where I live.  Although Miss Mississippi did not win, Mississippi was well represented.  Miss Mississippi did get into the top 15, which is still quite an accomplishment in itself.  She also won several preliminary awards and scholarship money.  Ricks was the only one of the 35 to win two of the five preliminary contests.  She was judged best in swimwear Thursday night and best in talent Friday night, when she sang “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” from the Broadway musical “Showboat.”. 
Chelsea Rick, 23, is a doctoral student at William Carey University studying osteopathic medicine.

Chelsea Rick - Miss Mississippi

DID YOU KNOW... Sam Haskell , who was raised in Amory , Mississippi is Chairman of the Board of the Miss America Organization . He is former Executive Vice President and Worldwide Head of Television for the venerable William Morris Agency,and was named in 2007 by TV Week as one of the 25 Most Innovative and Influential People in Television over the last quarter century. After living over 30 years living in Los Angeles he recently re-located to Oxford, MS, with his wife and Ole Miss college sweetheart Mary Donnelly Haskell, a former Miss Mississippi and current Martingale recording artist. They are both University of Mississippi graduates, and have two children, Sam, IV and Mary Lane.

Sam Haskell

I love watching pageants but have never really been a pageant girl. I have watched pageants with my mother since I was a little girl. Recently, when I was telling her about the upcoming pageant, she reminded me how, during the years that I lived in Memphis, we would call each other during commercial breaks to give each other our opinions and picks . I remember those times very fondly. I have never really been a "Pageant Girl", myself . I have only competed in two beauty contests/pageants in my life . The first was the Miss Northside Pageant when I was sixteen and the second was the Mrs. Mississippi Pageant thirty- one years later at the age of forty-seven.

My "Pageant Girl" picture for the 2012 Mrs. Mississippi Pageant