Miss Tennessee 2014 Hayley Lewis (pink) gathers with the winners of Saturday's Scenic City Pageants at Chattanooga State (left to right) Miss Scenic City Hannah Robison of Martin, Miss Tennessee Valley Sydney Shadrix of Nashville and Miss Chattanooga Stephanie McKain of Murfreesboro. Eighteen women, some of whom traveled from as far as Memphis, competed for the titles in a program that has produced five of the last twelve Miss Tennessee winners including Miss Lewis who was the Tennessee Valley representative when she won the title in June.
photo by Harvey Elkins/HE Images
Stephanie McKain, Hannah Robison and Sydney Shadrix will have almost a year to prepare for the 2015 Miss Tennessee Pageant after winning the Scenic City Pageant titles on Saturday at Chattanooga State.
Miss McKain was chosen Miss Chattanooga, Miss Scenic City is Miss Robison and Miss Shadrix was named Miss Tennessee Valley from among the 18 contestants who traveled from as far as Memphis to compete for the three titles in a local preliminary program that has produced five of the last 12 Miss Tennessee winners including current titleholder Hayley Lewis. Any Tennessee resident and/or student is eligible to compete for the area titles as long as they meet pageant requirements.
Lexi White and Dacey Winkleman both of Chattanooga were the runners-up for the Scenic City title, Madison Snipes and Signal Mountain resident Meryl Anne Dexter were first and second alternates for the Chattanooga crown and the Tennessee Valley runners-up were Christine Williamson and Peyton Wilson.
A 22-year-old graduate student at Middle Tennessee State University with an undergraduate degree from Oral Roberts University, Miss McKain is the founder of T-Shirts International. The non-profit organization which she started four years ago has donated over 1,500 shirts to children from Rwanda, Mexico and Honduras as well as the United States. Her talent was a piano performance of Fur Elise and she won the Evening Gown award. The Murfreesboro resident and North Carolina native will be competing for the Miss Tennessee title for the second time as she won the Non-Finalist Interview Award at the recent state pageant representing the Banana Pudding Festival based in Centerville.
Miss Robison is a rising senior majoring in Chemistry at UT-Martin and as Miss Tennessee Valley 2012 was the second runner-up at Miss Tennessee. She won the Quality of Life Award for Community Service for her Hannah’s Campaign against Pain which focuses on arthritis awareness. Miss Robison is also a pianist and she received the Talent Award as well for her rendition of El Cumbanchero. She is a spokesperson for the West Tennessee STEM Hub.
Miss Shadrix is a recent graduate of Belmont University where she received her degree in Music Education and will be teaching at Woodland Middle School in Nashville in the fall. A native of Carrollton, Georgia she competed at the recent Miss Georgia Pageant where she won a Talent Preliminary Award. She won the Scenic City Talent Award for her classical vocal presentation of Habanera from the opera Carmen.
The emcee was Miss Tennessee 2012 and former Miss Chattanooga Chandler Lawson and Miss Tennessee 2009 Stefanie Wittler of Soddy-Daisy was among the guest vocalists. Also performing were Miss Lewis and Mishana Paris. Tennessee’s Outstanding Teen Lexie Perry, who is partially deaf, fiddled to The Devil Went Down to Georgia and Orange Blossom Special. Miss Perry will be competing for the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen title in Orlando on August 2nd.
Also in attendance was five-year-old Ema McLaughen of Ooltewah who made state headlines when she was a special guest at last month’s Miss Tennessee competition. She and Miss Lewis took a stroll along the Humanities Theatre stage accompanied by a loud ovation from the audience.
Miss Scenic City 2015 Hannah Robison, Miss Chattanooga 2015 Stephanie McKain and Miss Tennessee Valley 2015 Sydney Shadrix wave to the audience at the Chattanooga State Humanities Theatre moments after winning the Scenic City Pageant titles on Saturday. The three will represent the Chattanooga area at next June's Miss Tennessee Pageant. Eighteen women competed in the local preliminary that is one of the most successful in the country having produced five Miss Tennessee winners.
photo by Harvey Elkins/HE Images