CAMARILLO : County Fair Crowns Queen From Somis

A Somis teen-ager swept this year’s Ventura County Fair Queen Pageant, winning awards as the most photogenic and the friendliest contestant in addition to being named queen.

Representing Camarillo, Amy Marie Bustard, 19, won all three of the honors awarded Sunday at the pageant fairgrounds.

Bustard was named queen of the 1993 fair, besides winning the titles of Miss Photogenic and Miss Friendship, a congeniality award bestowed by her seven competitors.

“Out of everything, I liked the Miss Friendship award the best,” Bustard said Monday. “That made me feel really good that the girls liked me.”

A 1992 graduate of Rio Mesa High School, Bustard works as a gymnastics teacher in Camarillo and is training to be a cosmetologist at Simi Valley Adult School.

Her talent performance in the pageant was a dance combining gymnastics, jazz and ballet.

In addition to winning a $500 scholarship, the county fair queen title allows Bustard to compete in the Miss California State Scholarship Pageant in 1994.

The first runner-up, Marianne Carol Jerpe, 21, who represented Ventura, won a $300 scholarship.

And second runner-up, Michelle Lynn Weeks, 17, who represented Port Hueneme, received a $150 scholarship.

Jerpe said she was 8 years old when she first began to dream of being in the fair queen pageant.

But she said she was thrilled to have won first runner-up and she had nothing but praise for the young woman who won the title of queen.

“She’s a really well-rounded person and she’s a great gymnast,” Jerpe said of Bustard. “When you see her you just think, ‘She’s a winner.’ ”