Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 22, 1993 TAG: 9306220254
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was a busy reign, while it lasted, and one that most of us didn't know was under way.
And now it is gone. Melissa, we hardly knew ye.
Clearly you need some background.
Spradlin-Puckett grew up in Salem, where she entered pageants as often as most kids her age were tying their shoelaces. She was Miniature Queen and Miss Bethel Assembly of God, Miss Harvest Queen and Miss Danville Festival. She competed in Miss Virginia and dozens of pageants for two decades.
She's 27 now, married and living in Roanoke County. The pageant pace has slackened a bit, though she is the new executive director of Miss Botetourt, a pageant she's trying to rouse from a brief hibernation. Spradlin-Puckett is a nurse at Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center.
Not long ago, an acquaintance suggested she enter the Mrs. Virginia pageant. Virginia's pageant director was nonexistent, and nobody had the exact set of rules, but Spradlin-Puckett seemed to qualify. She was married and active in community service organizations.
She put it off because she and her husband, Andrew, traveled to Florida for their first wedding anniversary on June 6. They were there four days.
On Sunday, June 13, the national director faxed an application to Melissa Spradlin-Puckett.
She stayed up late, answering all the questions, thoughtfully preparing her entry and finishing about 2 a.m.
"It was all about my morals, my values, my beliefs, all that stuff," she said.
On Monday, June 14, Melissa returned the completed application to the national office in Texas via overnight mail. The national pageant will be July 30 in Tyler, Texas. With no time to select the finest Missus in all Virginia, the Old Dominion's representative was to have been selected through written applications.
On Tuesday, June 15, Spradlin-Puckett's package arrived in Texas.
On Wednesday, June 16, a director called from Texas. "They didn't waste any time making their selection," Melissa was told. " `You're the new Mrs. Virginia U.S.A.' It made my day."
She scrambled to line up $1,000 in sponsorship money, and to reserve seats for flights to Texas. Air fare for Melissa and Andrew was going to cost almost $950.
Pausing to take a breath during the weekend, she read the application closely.
She read one requirement that disqualified her. Mrs. U.S.A. pageanteers must be married at least two years. As of today, she and Andrew have been married one year and 16 days.
On Sunday, she called the pageant director and admitted the 351-day discrepancy.
She never had inquired about the prizes in the pageant, but Melissa Spradlin-Puckett on Sunday turned in the crown she never won.
"I've really enjoyed being Mrs. Virginia," she said ruefully on Monday of her 95-hour reign.
"Embarrassing as it is, as excited as everybody was at work, at least I didn't lose my air fare," said Melissa. She hadn't yet paid for the tickets.
by CNB