Dayton’s Lexee Blair Hill Contending In Distinguished Young Woman Program
Friday, June 29, 2012
- by Wendy King
Dayton’s Lexee Blair Hill has been in Mobile for the last two weeks participating in the Distinguished Young Woman of America finals as she attempts to become the second consecutive Tennessean to win the prestigious competition.
The recent graduate of Rhea County High School and incoming freshman at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville is hoping to succeed outgoing titleholder and impending college classmate Katye Brock of Tullahoma who became just the second Tennessee entrant to win the national finals a year ago.
The finals will be aired online Saturday night beginning at 8 ET/7 CT at
local15tv.com/">www.local15tv.com. The top eight emerging from Thursday and Friday’s preliminary competitions will compete in Interview, Scholastics, Talent, Self-Expression and Fitness. The winner will receive a $40,000 scholarship.
Should Miss Hill win the title, it would only be the second time in Distinguished Young Woman (formerly America’s Junior Miss) history that a state has won back to back national programs. In 1991 and 1992 California entrants received the coveted gold medallions.
Miss Hill’s participation in the Mobile finals comes less than a week after Chandler Lawson also of Tullahoma became the first Tennessee’s Junior Miss to win the Miss Tennessee Pageant. Miss Lawson was the 2008 titleholder while attending Tullahoma High School which is the same school where Miss Brock is an alumnus.
The 2013 Distinguished Young Woman of Tennessee program will be held next month at the Fine Arts Center on the Bradley Central High School campus in Cleveland. Twenty-two rising high school seniors will be competing on July 21st and 22nd for the opportunity of representing Tennessee next June in Mobile along with receiving college scholarships.