ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: a look back at 1995 - whatever happened to 1995
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DETHRONED MISS VIRGINIA Andrea Ballengee is now said to be a dancer aboard a cruise ship, while successor Amber Medlin finds even schoolchildren ask her about the controversy that led to her crowning.
Amber Medlin says that even some of the youngest children at the schools she visits are aware of the controversy that surrounded the Miss Virginia Pageant last summer.
"Were you crowned on television?'' she recalls one elementary student asking her during a visit at a school.
Ever since Medlin was crowned Miss Virginia on July 25 - nearly a month after the state pageant was held at the Roanoke Civic Center and broadcast live on television - she has learned to deal with any questions she gets about her title.
Shortly after Andrea Ballengee won the Miss Virginia title on July 1, questions were raised about several statements on her biographical entrance form - most of them relating to her academic career and status.
She and the pageant's board of directors initially dismissed them as honest mistakes.
But two weeks later, after finding two false claims by Ballengee - including the statement that she was a first-year law student at the University of Miami when she was in fact on a waiting list - the pageant took away her crown.
That's when Medlin was summoned to Roanoke from her job at a Virginia Beach cafe, questioned as if she were a Supreme Court nominee and eventually crowned the new Miss Virginia.
Nearly four months after that crowning outside the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, Medlin and pageant officials say they have been able to put the summer's events behind them.
Ballengee, who pageant sources say is working as a dancer aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, couldn't be reached for comment.
Cunard Cruise Lines, which operates the luxury cruise liner, would not verify her employment.
"I feel like it just gave the pageant maybe more credibility," says Margaret Baker, the pageant's executive director. "There was so much opposition; and I think the fact the Miss Virginia board took the action they did made people realize we were certainly trying to do the right thing, which does lend credibility."
One of the most visible ways the pageant could have been hurt would have been sponsors' withdrawals.
But that has not happened, Baker says.
In fact, she expects to have more local pageants participating next year - including the Roanoke Valley, which did not have a contestant in the pageant this year.
Baker says she also hopes scholarships awarded to pageant finalists will increase.
But she says Medlin, who will turn 24 in January, also should share credit for the way she has dealt with media and public scrutiny.
"She's handled that like a pro," Baker says.
Medlin says the number of questions she receives about her crowning have diminished significantly.
When she arrived in Atlantic City for the Miss America Pageant, Medlin says, she expected to be bombarded with questions. But she had to field only a few questions regarding her crowning, although some of the other contestants were curious.
Those who do continue to ask, she doesn't mind answering.
In fact, when students she visits ask her why she wasn't crowned during the pageant in July, she sees that as an opportunity to stress to the kids the importance of honesty.
"It's kind of a lesson," she says. Medlin explains to the children about the biographical sheet the contestants had to fill out. "I tell them they have to be honest always."
Aside from her routine appearances as Miss Virginia, Medlin spends a lot of time in schools as part of her "Be a Buddy" program.
Through the program, she educates able-bodied children about handicapped children - discussing everything from asthma to cerebral palsy.
One of the most important lessons the children can learn through the program is that not all diseases are contagious, Medlin says.
Medlin's reign will continue for about seven more months before a new Miss Virginia is crowned next June.
She says her next step is graduate school, where she hopes to earn a degree in health care administration.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File/1995. 1. When called on, Amber Medlin was ready toby CNBtake her place as the pageant's victor. 2. Andrea Ballengee's title
was revoked after discrepancies were found on her biographical
entrance form. color.