Miss Teen USA Puts a Speck on the Map : Youth: Tiny desert town swells with pride over victory of Shauna Gambill, a cheerleader and straight-A student.

It’s probably less exciting to plan a parade when almost everyone involved lives within sight of each other but that was the only restraint on the jubilation in Acton last week, when a local girl won the national Miss Teen USA Pageant.

More than 100 people crowded into a Mexican restaurant in the block of rustic shops that is central Acton on Tuesday night, because it had a satellite dish that could get the real-time broadcast from the pageant in Biloxi, Miss.

Some viewers then ran home and videotaped the delayed network TV broadcast three hours later, watching Shauna Gambill’s victory all over again.

Shauna, 17, won her first beauty pageant at the age of 8 in Acton, a tiny desert community tucked against the north slope of the San Gabriel Mountains, about 10 miles south of Palmdale. Many residents watched her grow up into a blond, green-eyed cheerleader who earned straight A’s and just kept winning local beauty pageants.

Many neighbors familiar with her string of successes said they never had a doubt about her chances, but Shauna said winning the crown was a shock.

“It was just (Miss) Georgia and I left up there” on stage at the climax of the competition, she said Friday. The runner-up was announced first, leaving Shauna the winner. “When they got to just the very beginning of the ‘G,’ I was just, ‘Yeowiee!’ ” she said. “I could not believe it.”

She became the first Miss Teen California to win the national pageant in its 30-year history. The title comes with more than $160,000 in prizes, including $60,000 in cash and a 1994 Pontiac Grand Am.

Her father, John Gambill, a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, said his visit to a Century City accountant to discuss how to deal with her winnings and plan her financial portfolio “was like a slap in the face, realizing my daughter was all grown up.”

Shauna’s father returned home Friday but her mother, Laurette, a nurse at a Santa Clarita hospital, stayed with Shauna at a Beverly Hills hotel to go clothes-shopping for a photo session Monday.

The pageant remained the dominant topic of conversation in Acton, a community of somewhere between 4,000 and 9,000 residents, depending on whom you ask. About 1,500 live near the center of town, but local officials’ estimates of the population vary with how many of the surrounding hillside homes are considered part of the community.

Many Acton residents are convinced that Shauna’s victory will put the inconspicuous community on the map--at least briefly--but not all are sure they like the idea.

“Now everyone’s going to know where Acton is,” remarked Nance Shierant, a three-year resident of the area. “I sort of liked it being isolated, away from everyone else. That’s why I moved here.”

Ted Siebert, president of the Acton Chamber of Commerce, said he doesn’t mind a little publicity.

“I’m a real estate broker, so that’s good,” he said. “We haven’t overly promoted this community.”

Locals tout the area as a place where a 5-acre ranch can be bought for the price of a small home in Los Angeles and outdoor lights are discouraged because they interfere with neighbors’ views of the stars. The summer heat is punishing, but enough snow falls in the winter to occasionally block cars in their driveways.

Shauna has succeeded in virtually everything she’s tried since the family moved from Simi Valley to Acton in 1984, according to those who know her.

She won the Little Miss Acton crown in 1985 and the Junior Miss Acton award in 1990. She was one of four valedictorians this spring at Highland High School in Palmdale with a 4.62 grade-point average, as well as the school’s senior homecoming princess and founding president of the Acton Leos Club, a Lions Club youth group.

The teen-ager’s run at the Miss Teen USA crown began in June of last year, when she won the Miss North Los Angeles County Teen USA competition. She was encouraged to enter by Shannon Mercier, 19, a longtime friend who competed in the Miss North Los Angeles County contest the same year.

“We both won, and that was real exciting because we got to spend the whole year doing things together,” said Shannon, who recently moved from Acton to Long Beach.

Both competed for statewide honors and the right to represent California in their respective national pageants. Shannon didn’t win, but Shauna did, earlier this year. That was when many of her friends saw the national title coming.

“Ever since she won California, I knew she had it,” said Amy Murray, 18, the current Miss Acton and a friend of Shauna’s since the third grade. “She’s so perfect.”

More than 100 locals crammed into the Mexican restaurant Tuesday for the live broadcast of the pageant at 6 p.m., three hours before it was shown on regular programming.

The mood was jubilant, even though few actually heard what was going on during the event because “anytime she just appeared on the screen, the place went ecstatic,” said Vivian Oswell, aerobics coordinator at the Gym, where Shauna exercises.

Oswell rushed home after the victory cheers to tape the 9 o’clock broadcast.

“I’ve seen it four times now, and every time I’ve cried,” she said.

She wasn’t the only one taping the show.

“When I came into work the day after the pageant, there were six people who had videotaped it and it was being shown all over the building,” said Highland High School Principal Jay Clark.

Acton residents hope to throw a welcome-home bash for Shauna, complete with bands and local politicians. An impromptu parade has been mentioned as a possibility, although organizers are keeping mum because they are cool to the idea of shelling out $1,500 for a formal permit for such a small, casual event.

One problem with planning the celebration is that nobody is certain when Shauna will get time off from her new duties to attend. Much of her time over the next year will be planned through Miss Universe Inc., the pageant’s sponsor.

Shauna said she hopes to return home Monday, for a short time at least, but last-minute schedule changes are always possible.

She said she intends to study law at UCLA and become an environmental attorney, although she probably will postpone plans to start college from January until her pageant duties are completed. But she feels her experience in the year ahead will more than make up for the delay.

And she promises not to forget her small-town roots.

“Acton has made me who I am today,” she said. “It is such a positive environment to grow up in. I’ve got a good set of morals and values because of the community.”