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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 1, 1992                   TAG: 9201010034
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: David M. Poole
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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NAMES IN '91

KaRenda LaPrade, 9, may not have won a tiara, but she had a blast last July at the beauty contest in Rye Brook, N.Y.

The 9-year-old Franklin County girl got her first glimpse of the Manhattan skyline, stayed at a Hilton Hotel and got her photo snapped with soap star Joey Thrower of "One Life to Live."

KaRenda's participation in the Junior America Pageant made headlines last March when the Franklin County supervisors voted 4-3 to pay half of her $480 entry fee with taxpayers' money.

The supervisors took so much heat for their benevolence that they considered asking for the money back.

Her parents, John and Doris LaPrade, are still upset about how some supervisors waffled, but KaRenda said the publicity did not bother her.

The fourth-grader makes straight A's at Rocky Mount Elementary School, studies jazz dance and has a roomful of beauty pageant trophies.

Her mother said her ambition is to be crowned Miss Virginia.

"No," KaRenda interjected, "Miss America."

Keywords:
YEAR 1991

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