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CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT: Bowen, Benton High junior, crowned Mardis Gras Queen |
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Monday, 28 January 2008 |
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 By Lynda Hollenbeck
Courier Staff Amy Bowen, a junior at Benton High School, was named 2008 Mardi Gras Queen at the close of the pageant Saturday night at Butler Auditorium on the BHS campus.
Candace Chandler, the 2007 queen, crowned her successor.
Selected as runners-up were Jordan Fletcher, first; Maegan Elmore, second; Chelsy Lewis, third; and Hannah Black, fourth.
Emily Noles was named Miss Congeniality, an honor determined by a vote of the contestants.
Special awards recognized Fletcher, a pianist, as the talent winner and Lewis as the evening gown winner.
During the pageant’s talent competition, Bowen sang “Devil May Care.”
Vocal entertainment was presented by Lacy Fleming Glover, a former Miss Arkansas. Also entertaining during breaks in the competition were Chandler, who presented a clogging dance, and a trio composed of Tyler Hawkins, Roger Norman and Baxter Reecer.
Mardi Gras contestants are judged in evening gown and talent categories. The five finalists then are judged on their responses to onstage questions.
Other contestants in the pageant were Hannah Bethel, Taylor Toney, Corey Hannum, Jonica Curtis, Chalenea Cox, Paige Harris, Lyndsey Skarda and Candace Garcia.
The school’s Student Council sponsors the Mardi Gras Pageant, which initially was a project of the French Club. It is traditionally held near the time of Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans.
Paula Long serves as Student Council sponsor.
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