On Saturday, nine young women and five judges made their way to Mexico High School bright and early, at about 8 a.m., to start preparing for the evening. They only had 11 hours before the pageant which isn’t a lot of time considering the orientation, practices, rehearsals, personal interviews with the judges and a full production runthrough that needed to happen. 

“They will learn an opening number dance, they will learn their staging for each phase of competition and then we run our show from top to bottom so that everyone and all of our volunteers also know,” says Cheyenne Parks, executive director of the Miss Audrain Scholarship Program.

Parks grew up in Washington and held the title of Miss Audrain in 2015 and 2018. She competed while pursuing a degree in elementary education and now resides in Mexico. 

The women ages 18-28 were competing for the title of Miss Audrain or Miss Brick City. Both titles secured a spot in the statewide Miss Missouri Scholarship Organization pageant to be held at Missouri Military Academy in June as well as a scholarship. 

“We have enough contestants so we were able to give out two titles,” says Parks. “We have a $1,000 scholarship for Miss Audrain and $750 for Miss Brick City.”

The teen competition for young women 14-17 years old happening the same night does not come with scholarship money yet but will allow them to compete for Miss Missouri Teen.

Since its establishment in 1935, Miss Missouri had been held in a number of cities all over the state with nowhere to call home. In 1969, a Mexico husband and wife escort team accompanying Miss Mexico to the Miss Missouri pageant were unenthused by the production. 

“She talked to her husband and she went, ‘We could do this in Mexico and we could do it better,” says Alice Leonatti, head director of the Miss Missouri pageant.

And she was right.

The couple began by reaching out to Miss America to see about getting a franchise and MMA to secure a venue as well as dormitory space for all the competitors. The first Miss Missouri to be held in Mexico was in 1970 in the MMA fieldhouse - the stage was nothing more than plywood bolted onto empty oil drums.  

“This is our 55th year to be crowning Miss Missoui here in Mexico and it’s just good for the community,” Leonatti points out.

Miss Missouri draws quite a crowd, even for these smaller affiliated competitions. This helps to bring some revenue, recognition and support to local businesses -- restaurants, hotels and shops here in Mexico and Audrain county.

“Mexico and Audrain are just so supportive that they want to be here as much as possible and be involved,” says Parks.

Miss Audrain and Miss Brick City is more than a beauty pageant; it is an opportunity for young women to get a leg up in their pursuit of higher education. The event has come a long way from plywood and oil drums becoming a scholarship organization that was able to give out $80,000 in scholarship money last year alone.

The 2024 title holders are Miss Audrain Halie Hebron, Miss Audrain Teen Olivia Carrow, Miss Brick City Teen Alice Kramer and Miss Brick City Amanda Kelley. 

Serving as judges were Leah Mays of Martinsburg, Rena Talla of Ozark, Maria Adams of Wentzville, Elizabeth McNiel of Mexico and Sarah Given of Mexico.

For additional pictures, please see the Mexico Ledger's online photo galleries.