Pageants return to Houston Center

By Phil Cobb | January 14, 2016 |

Taylor Deen

Two area teens and a Maryville native now attending Northwest Missouri State University will be among 18 contestants seeking four titles Saturday night during the annual Northwest Missouri Pageants event at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts.

The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. with 2015 titleholders Miss Northwest Kristen McDowell, Miss Maryville Libby Marquart, and Miss Northwest Outstanding Teen Jessica Janorschke in attendance to crown their successors.

Miss Missouri 2015 McKensie Garber will also be onstage performing and assisting host Kendell Misemer with MC duties.

Garber is a native of Hale, a small town in the north central part of the state, and a graduate of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she earned a degree in journalism.

She was won the Miss Missouri Outstanding Teen pageant in 2011, making her the first person to wear both the Outstanding Teen and Miss Missouri crowns.

In a year that marks the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 1, 2001, terrorist attacks, Misemer said the Maryville pageant will carry a patriotic theme. The evening will also include a tribute to the late John Mires, a longtime pageant board member and retired National Guardsman who died last summer.

Titles to be bestowed include Miss Northwest Outstanding Teen (ages 13-17) and Miss Northwest, Miss Maryville, and Miss Northwest Counties (ages 17-24).

This year’s Outstanding Teen contestants are Kaitlyn Rigdon, Imperial, Westminster Christian Academy; Merceds Zion, Bolckow, North Andrew R-VI; Allisyn Neal, St. Louis, Oakville Middle School; Destiny Clayton, Guilford; home schooled; and Jennifer Teel, Gallatin, Gallatin Middle School.

Following the Outstanding Teen portion of the pageant all 13 adult contestants will compete for the remaining titles, with each of the three women receiving the most points from the judges becoming eligible for the Miss Missouri pageant June 12-18 in Mexico, Mo.

This year pageant entrants are: Kelsey Mann, Southlake, Texas, Baylor University; Destinee Selleck, Palmyra, Culver Stockton University; Mikaela Carson, Overland Park, Kansas, Lindenwood University; Abbie Hebron, O’Fallon, Missouri State University; Emily Gallup, Liberty, Pittsburg State University; Alexandra Skinner, Vincennes, Indiana, University of Missouri; Angela Porcelli, Chesterfield, Missouri State University; Jenni Wahonic, Papillion, Nebraska, University of Central Missouri; Hannah Morgan, Columbia, Moberly Area Community College; Avori Henderson, Springfield, Illinois, Lindenwood University; Angela Luna, Wentzville, Northwest Missouri State University; Morgan Allen, Mexico, Missouri, Northwest Missouri State University; Taylor Deen, Maryville, Northwest Missouri State University.

Each will compete in several categories, including interview, talent, eveningwear, on-stage question, and swimwear/active wear.