1st Kentuckian Wins Miss America

Miss Kentucky Heather Renee French was crowned Miss America 2000 on Saturday night, becoming the first woman from that state ever to wear the crown.

French, 24, of Maysville, Ky., covered her face with her hands when co-host Marie Osmond announced her name. Then she hugged the first runner-up and outgoing Miss America Nicole Johnson before receiving the crown.

She then took the traditional walk down the runway, smiling and waving.

The first runner-up was Miss Illinois Jade Smalls. The second runner-up was Miss Pennsylvania Susan Spafford. Miss Maryland Keri Schrader and Miss Texas Yanci Yarbrough rounded out the top five.

French, a fashion design student at the University of Cincinnati, sang “As If We Never Said Goodbye” for her talent offering.

She plans to spend her year as Miss America campaigning for outreach to homeless military veterans. Her father is a veteran, and she volunteers at a Veterans Administration hospital.

For winning the title, French gets a $40,000 college scholarship, an all-expense-paid 7th Avenue spending spree and a year’s worth of living out of suitcases: Miss America typically travels 20,000 miles a month during her reign.

“I’m afraid I’m going to drop the scepter,” she said at the start of a news conference held immediately after the crowning.

“You cannot imagine the feeling that is running through my entire being right now,” she said. “This is such a dream come true, I can honestly tell you.”

Her victory capped a bizarre week in which Hurricane Floyd, a strike by hotel workers and the pageant’s decision to drop a 50-year-old ban on divorce and abortion threatened to upstage the annual Convention Hall spectacle.

Ironically, she hails from a state whose pageant director has been most critical of the decision to loosen the rules regarding women who have had divorces and abortions.

“She made the top 10,” Miss Kentucky Pageant executive director Libby Taylor said earlier in the evening, after the top 10 were announced. “They haven’t cut my throat yet.”

The pageant, hosted by newcomers Donny and Marie Osmond, promised plenty of new twists.

The most controversial one wasn’t in effect this year, but that didn’t stop Marie Osmond from making fun of it at the beginning of the show. The new Miss America plans to split the scholarship money, she said.

“She’s going to share it with her ex-husband,” Osmond said.

And for the first time since Miss America took to the airwaves in 1954, viewers saw only five of the contestants perform talent routines, instead of 10.

Frustrated by declining TV ratings, pageant officials opted to cut the number of baton twirlers, tap dancers and pianists who try their luck on the Convention Hall stage. The change was meant to speed up the show and hold on to viewers.