Miss Mississippi Outstanding Teen competition this weekend

Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, April 24, 2019

This weekend a bevy of young women will arrive in the River City to compete in the Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen Pageant.

The preliminary competitions will be held on Saturday, with the final competition and crowning on Sunday.

There will be 35 contestants vying for the state title and the theme for this year’s production is “Life … The Greatest Show.”

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“We would like the show to not only be entertaining, but also inspirational to the contestants and the audience. Each day is a new day to dream big and live your story, because life is our greatest show,” MMOT producer Jennifer Tillotson said.

Serving as Tillotson’s co-producer is Kristy Brumfield.

“Kristy has been involved with pageants her whole life and it is wonderful to add her to our great team,” Tillotson said.

Taylor Thomas will be returning as the pageant’s choreographer.

In February, during a weekend of orientation, Thomas not only taught the contestants the choreography for the show but also videoed the rehearsal. Thomas then put the video on YouTube so the girls could use it to practice after returning home. That, Tillotson said, should help with this week’s performance.

“This really helps, since we just had our short weekend to practice,” Tillotson said. “We also do the same for the princesses so they can practice their dance This has worked every year.”

One challenge this year, however, is timing. The pageant has more contestants than in past years, which makes everything — including rehearsal — run a bit longer.

 “We have eight more contestants, which stretches out everything including the interview process, which gets into our rehearsal time. It will also make each phase of the preliminary competition a bit longer,” Tillotson said.

The Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen Pageant preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The final competition and crowning will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday.

All competitions will be held at the Vicksburg City Auditorium, 901 Monroe St.

The winner of the state competition will go on to compete in the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant, which will be held in Orlando, Florida, on July 27.

Tickets for the MMOT competitions are $75 for all three competitions, $25 for each of the preliminaries, and $40 for the final competition and crowning.

Tickets are available through the Miss Mississippi Pageant website missmississippipageant.com.

About Terri Cowart Frazier

Terri Frazier was born in Cleveland. Shortly afterward, the family moved to Vicksburg. She is a part-time reporter at The Vicksburg Post and is the editor of the Vicksburg Living Magazine, which has been awarded First Place by the Mississippi Press Association. She has also been the recipient of a First Place award in the MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest’s editorial division for the “Best Feature Story.”

Terri graduated from Warren Central High School and Mississippi State University where she received a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in public relations.

Prior to coming to work at The Post a little more than 10 years ago, she did some freelancing at the Jackson Free Press. But for most of her life, she enjoyed being a full-time stay at home mom.

Terri is a member of the Crawford Street United Methodist Church. She is a lifetime member of the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary and is a past member of the Sampler Antique Club and Town and Country Garden Club. She is married to Dr. Walter Frazier.

“From staying informed with local governmental issues to hearing the stories of its people, a hometown newspaper is vital to a community. I have felt privileged to be part of a dedicated team at The Post throughout my tenure and hope that with theirs and with local support, I will be able to continue to grow and hone in on my skills as I help share the stories in Vicksburg. When asked what I like most about my job, my answer is always ‘the people.’

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