By Debbie Adams
It’s Miss Virginia Pageant competition week in Roanoke.
The first Miss Virginia Pageant was held at the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach in 1926 as a
business outreach event. In 1953, the program was officially established in Roanoke after
Elizabeth Bowles, a member of the Valley Junior Woman’s Club, went to Atlantic City and
requested a franchise for the Miss Virginia Pageant for the club. In 1963, a non-profit group,
Miss Virginia Competition, Inc., was formed and granted a franchise from the Miss America
Pageant.
The first Miss Virginia Pageant in Roanoke was held in the ballroom of the Hotel Roanoke (the
host hotel through the present day). It later moved to the American Theatre until the opening of
the Roanoke Civic Center Auditorium (now the Berglund Center).
Four Miss Virginias have gone on to be crowned as Miss America– Kylene Barker, Nicole
Johnson, Caressa Cameron, and Camille Schrier.
Miss Virginia is foremost a scholarship organization which last year awarded over $75,000 in
scholarships to Miss and Teen candidates. Miss Virginia was awarded over $22,500. The Miss
American Pageant is the largest scholastic benefactor to women in the world, making available
more than $4 million in cash and in-kind scholarships annually nationwide.
Competition Week (June 24-29) is packed with activities, beginning with the “Meet the Crowns
Reception” in the Shenandoah Room at the hotel on June 25.
Miss Virginia 2023 Katie Rose, along with Miss Virginia Teen 2023 Addison Rhudy were at the
doorway to greet the public, pageant judges, sponsors, and local officials.
Virginia Pageant this week, beginning with a “Meet the Crowns” reception at the Hotel Roanoke
on June 25. Pictured left to right are Miss Virginia advisory board member Carolyn Hodges
Campbell, Miss Virginia 2023 Katie Rose, and Miss Virginia Teen Addison Rhudy. (photos by Debbie Adams)
The room was filled with sparkling evening gowns and crowns, and charming young women– 25
Miss Virginia contestants, along with over 20 Miss Virginia Teens from across the
Commonwealth. They came with conversation starters– shoes they had decorated to represent
their local areas. They’ll be displaying those shoes again on Saturday, June 29, as they ride in the
“Show Us Your Shoes” parade through downtown Roanoke, celebrating the Miss Virginia
heritage in the “Star City.”
The contestants have also decorated purses and baskets for a “Purse-a-nality and Basket
Auction” to benefit the Miss Virginia Opportunity organization. They will be showcasing red
dresses for the American Heart Association “Go Red” initiative at a style show and luncheon on
Saturday.
All week long, there will be special guests, preliminary competitions, receptions, luncheons, and
parties, leading up to the final competition on June 29, when Miss Virginia 2024 will be crowned
at the Berglund Center.
Preliminary competitions for the Miss and Teen candidates will take place on Thursday and
Friday, June 27 and 28. Contestants will compete in talent, individual Community Service
Initiatives, fitness, evening wear, an interview with the judges, and an on-stage question at the
final competition.
Miss America 2024 Madison Marsh will be attending several of the events throughout the week,
sharing her experience of representing Miss America Opportunity, while serving in the U.S. Air
Force.
At the “Meet the Crowns” reception, the contestants were personable, prepared, and articulate.
Miss Roanoke Valley Grace Phleger is from Roanoke, just graduated from Radford University
with a Master’s in Music Therapy, and plans to become an opera singer. She decorated a pair of
boots with sparkling stars, representing the “Star City” and talked about what it takes to become
a star.
At the table with her was Lexie Hovey, Miss Teen Roanoke Valley, who is not from Roanoke.
She is a high school student in Williamsburg. She earned her title by entering the first Teen
competition of the year, which was held in Roanoke. Her shoes were blue ballet shoes
embellished with rhinestones, representing both her passion for dance and support for her
brother’s Type 1 diabetes.
Hovey (left) and Miss Roanoke Valley Grace Pfleger pose with their starry decorated footwear
for the “Shoe Me Your Shoes Parade” coming up in downtown Roanoke on Saturday.
Miss Virginia Dogwood Johanna Pearson (not to be confused with Miss Vinton Dogwood
Festival, although Pearson has stopped by the Vinton festival) and Miss Virginia Dogwood’s
Teen, Montana Cochran, decorated their shoes with dogwood blossoms in a variety of colors,
paying tribute to Virginia’s state flower.
(left) and Miss Virginia Dogwood Johanna Pearson designed dogwood-themed shoes in honor of
the state flower.
The Town of Vinton has many connections to the Miss Virginia program. For several years in
the early 1980s and ’90s, the Miss Vinton Dogwood Festival Pageant became a preliminary to
the Miss Virginia and Miss America competitions. The Vinton franchise was an “open pageant”
meaning that those who competed in the Miss Dogwood pageant could come from, or attend
college in, any city or town in the state.
Vinton’s Bootie Chewning is a member of the board of directors. She has served on the board of
the Miss Virginia Pageant for over 25 years– three years as president. (That’s in addition to 30
years with the Junior Miss Pageant and 50 years with the Little Sisters program.) One year,
Executive Director Steve Musselwhite of Vinton was short a judge for the Miss Virginia Pageant
and asked Chewning to fill in– that’s when her relationship with Miss Virginia began. She has
served in many capacities with the competition, “a jack of all trades.” For many years she was in
charge of production for the entire show, laying out the pageant, “getting everyone on stage,”
and working with all of the contestants, many of whom she still keeps in touch with.
Chewning invited Carolyn Hodges Campbell, well known in Vinton as a volunteer for the Relay
for Life organization, to do the publicity for Miss Virginia. Currently, Campbell is an advisory
member of the board of directors for publicity and tickets.
Bootie Chewning have been involved with the Miss Virginia Pageant for years, along with many
other volunteers from Vinton.
Steve and Billie Sue Musselwhite of Vinton worked with the Miss Virginia Pageant for 40 years.
Nita Echols, Ruth Wood, William Cundiff and several others were instrumental in creating the
franchise to join the Miss Virginia organization. Susan Teass, who has served on the Vinton
Dogwood Festival Committee for many years, most notably as the Dogwood Queen’s Court
Coordinator, has worked backstage at the Miss Virginia Pageant for about 12 years, most
recently as the backstage dresser for the outgoing Miss Virginia.
Chewning and Campbell both say that working with the Miss Virginia Pageant has been very
rewarding. They have met many special young women in the process, often working with
families who have had more than one daughter to compete. Campbell says that in talking with
the contestants who have gone on to win the competitions, “it becomes obvious why the judges
selected them– they are so kind, so sweet, and more than the crown.”
Tickets for the Miss Virginia evening competitions are available at
https://www.missvirginia.org/.
