Gatlinburg's Lora Brakins celebrates her new title as Mike Steele and former Tennessee Junior Miss Michelle Fortner look on. Click to enlarge all our photos.
photo by John Wilson
Gatlinburg's Lori Brakins was selected Tennessee Junior Miss on the stage of the Tivoli Theatre on Saturday night.
The first runnerup was Deanna Gardenhire, a Girls' Preparatory School student who was representing East Brainerd.
April Brown of Rhea County and McMinn County's Bonnie Allmon were also in the top eight - selected from the 35 contestants from around the state.
Other finalists were Mary Catherine Musick of Nashville, Kate Mitchell of Fountain City, Christina Carbajo of Oak Ridge and Bethany Schneider of Franklin.
Marion County's Lauren Blevins was selected for the Spirit of Junior Miss Award.
Lori is the daughter of Betty and Randy Brackins and a student at Gatlinburg-Pittman High School headed for Vanderbilt University. She wants to be a child psychologist.
She will represent Tennessee at Mobile, Ala., in the nationally televised America's Junior Miss.
Contestants received $7,000 in scholarship money in the state pageant that is headed by Mike and Lynn Steele of East Ridge.
Katrina Owens, anchor for Channel 4 in Columbus, Ohio, was the emcee.
Deanna Gardenhire plans to attend Duke University and study medicine. Her family includes Connie and Tim Regal and Tom and Paige Gardenhire.
She was the overall scholastic award winner and won one of the talent competitions.
Lori Brakins won fitness and poise competitions.
Bethany Schneider was the overall fitness winner, and Julie Tilson of Cleveland was the overall poise winner.
Mary Catherine Musick was the overall talent winner.
Debra Guess of Red Bank was a preliminary scholastic winner.
Michelle Fortner of Hendersonville, who won the overall talent competition at America's Junior Miss, was supposed to tap dance on the Tivoli stage. But she suffered an injury during the week, and a tape was shown of her performance in Mobile.
A number of other previous Tennessee Junior Miss title holders took part in the program, including Kim Payne Greenwood, wife of entertainer Lee Greenwood.
Laurel Boles was in charge of choreography. She is also on the state board along with Darlene Brown, Judy Clark, Lee Hope, Lisa Meades, Craig Pletcher, Jenny Pletcher, Traci Dunn-Fant, Angela McBrayer, Lisa Rhea, Larry Rhodes and Janice Freeman.
Host families were Ship and Jan Alexander, Terry and Connie Ballinger, Beverly Crawford, Mike and Becky Fingerle, Danny and Sharon Forgey, Jim and Pam Gilbertson, David and Nancy Graves, June Hatcher, Pat and Donna Williams, Sid and Colette Huntley, Tom and Sandy Jenkins, John and Deborah Johnson, Rob and Beverly Kibble, Todd and Lisa Meades, Dan and Lisa Odom, Jay and Judy Clark, Gary and Liz Wilkerson and David and Lisa Willard.
The top eight at the Tennessee Junior Miss pageant wait for the announcement of the new state representative. From left are Christina Carbajo of Oak Ridge, April Brown of Rhea County, Bonnie Allmon of McMinn County, Bethany Schneider of Franklin, Lori Brakins of Gatlinburg, Deanna Gardenhire of East Brainerd, Mary Catherine Musick of Nashville and Kate Mitchell of Fountain City. Click to enlarge all our photos.
photo by John Wilson