Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993 TAG: 9305140183
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
"It's a misconception," said Stacy Harrell, also known as Miss Montgomery County.
That pageant and the Miss Virginia competition in which she will participate in July puts brains before beauty, she said.
"It's a scholarship pageant. You have a lot of very intelligent young women," she said. "The money is awarded to go toward paying for a college education."
She noted that 40 percent of the pageant points are based on the contestant's interview with the judges, and another 40 percent on the talent presentation. Only 10 percent comes from the evening gown and swimsuit segments, she said, and the emphasis is more on physical fitness and a healthy image than good looks.
Harrell, 24, is a teacher's aide at Dublin Middle School, where she also helps coach volleyball and track.
"You don't get rich teaching in a money sense. You get rich inside," she said, which is something you can imagine her telling judges in the Miss Virginia pageant in Roanoke in two months. "I love kids and I think, the way things are today, education is a necessity. It's vital."
She works at Daynell's on weekends, and the job may expand when school ends for the summer.
She likes to work with the public, she said. In the past six years, her work places have included McDonald's, Food Lion and McAdoo's.
"You meet a lot of interesting people," she said. "You may get somebody who's had a bad day. Sometimes you can cheer them up."
She grew up in Pulaski and graduated from Radford University in 1991. She was about 10 years old when she saw a Christmas parade in Pulaski featuring Kylene Barker, the 1978 Miss Virginia. Harrell has been fascinated by pageants ever since.
"I have always watched them," she said. "It didn't matter whether it was Miss America or Miss U.S.A. . . . I like to look at the dresses and the pageantry."
Barker, now Kylene Barker Brandon, is the last contestant from the New River Valley to win the Miss Virginia title. She became Miss Pulaski County in 1978 while attending Virginia Tech. A year later, she was Miss America.
Harrell would like to go that route.
She did a magic act for her talent in her first try for Miss Montgomery County in 1991, and has been known to entertain some of her pupils with it on occasion. But it took too long to set up for the illusions in the alloted time for judging.
"It scored enough to place but not enough to win," she said. She switched to singing and won.
Harrell thinks most people are unaware of how much work goes into competing.
The audience does not see the contestant present a required position paper of up to 300 words to the judges. It misses the 12-minute judges' interview which counts for so much.
"That is my favorite part. Most people, you know, hate it," she said. "Anything you put about yourself on your fact sheet, you better know about."
Unlike on-stage performance, she said, the interview gives the contestant some personal contact with the judges.
"It's always interesting," she said. "It's been good for me . . . It's helped me with job interviews, for sure."
Hardest for her was the first time she went on stage to sing last year in pageant competition in Lynchburg. "Worst case of stage fright I ever had," to the point where she was physically ill, she recalled.
She credits roommate Kim White, who was Miss Vinton Dogwood Festival that year, with getting her through it. She said White sat up with her the night before her performance and helped her with her song. Afterward, Harrell told her mother: "I made it through. I think I can do anything now."
Her parents are Robert Harrell Jr. and Joyce Harrell. She also has younger and older sisters, Angie, 20, and Carla, 29.
Harrell attended New River Community College for two years before transferring to Radford, and was a member of the New River Valley Volunteer Rescue Squad during those years. "That's another thing where you have to stay kind of level-headed and not panic," she said.
Once the patient is at the hospital, or once the pageant competition is over, she said, "then you can fall apart if you want to."
by CNB