Emily Davis was crowned the 2003 Miss Reveille last Thursday night at the Humphrey Coliseum. With the stage set for the Miss Reveille Pageant, many excited audience members made their way into Humphrey Coliseum Thursday. Behind the scenes, 65 girls, full of anticipation and nervousness, made their final preparations to cross the stage and display the beauty of being a woman.
Despite the rain, many friends and family came to cheer on the contestants throughout the evening.
“I am here to support my friends, and I like coming to see pageants,” senior Jenny Manning said.
While much of the audience awaited the presentation of a few or several friends, many families made the trip to Starkville just to see that one special contestant.
“There’s only one person we are here to see,” said Gary and Debbie Dennis of Jackson.
Ceressa Sims of Kosciusko came to see one of her dear family friends, who was like a daughter to her.
“I’ve known her since she was 3 years old. We’ve grown up in pageants together. Rain could have hindered the crowd, but we were coming regardless,” Sims said.
“All the girls are very excited,” Lynn Shaw, one of the four escorts, said. “They all had interviews from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.”
“They arrived from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. soaking wet, trying to cover their hair and dresses,” Shaw said. “I’ve never seen so many plastic bags on a girl’s head before in my life.
“I get to see a lot of my friends have the opportunity to do something they love, but I wish the best for all of them.” “They are all beautiful and talented girls. I wish they all could win.”
According to Molly Dye, the business manager of The Reveille, the pageant started in the mid ’60s as a way to have a pageant just for fun. It has continued over the years primarily as a fundraiser for The Reveille. The pageant offers the girls good exposure and a chance to do something that they love.
There are two major categories in which each contestant is judged: interview and presentation. Scoring depended more on feel than perfection.
“It’s more of opinion scoring. They [the judges] look at poise, eye contact and of course the answers to the questions,” Dye said. “They even look at self confidence and how comfortable you are answering the questions.”
For the interviews, each contestant has three minutes to answer a question, and the judges give each contestant a score from one to ten.
The application that each contestant turned in was like a resumZ, so each of the participants’ activities and awards were listed. The judges had these during the pageant to reference and use throughout their decision process.
Each girl was sponsored by either a sorority or an outside organization. Some participants were sponsored by their families as well as an organization.
As the evening progressed, tension increased as slowly the 65 were reduced to 35, then 20, then 10 and finally the four beauties and the new Miss Reveille.
The 2003 Miss Reveille, Davis, is a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. Davis said that before the pageant started she had been anxious about seeing old friends.
Davis said that before the pageant started she had been anxious about seeing old friends.
“I love to get to see everybody in this year’s pageant,” Davis said.
Davis, a senior and native of Jackson, served as a senator for the Student Association last year. She was also a Bulldog Belle, and as a Belle, assisted with football recruitment.
She said she was extremely excited to be named in the final group of girls, and after being named this year’s Miss Reveille, she said she was surprised and speechless with the news of her winning the pageant.
“I thought I was in a dream!” Davis exclaimed. “It was an honor to be recognized as the 2003 Miss Reveille finalist.”
The four beauties named were: Julie Eastland, Karmon Evans, Kim Blackwell and Kelly Albritton.