LAS VEGAS – A
23-year-old beauty queen from Kenosha, Wisconsin, won the Miss America pageant
Saturday in Las Vegas after singing opera and strutting in a white bikini and
black beaded evening gown.
Laura Kaeppeler also had
to answer a question about whether beauty queens should declare their politics.
"Miss America
represents everyone, so I think the message to political candidates is that
they represent everyone as well," she said. "And so in these economic
times, we need to be looking forward to what America needs, and I think Miss America
needs to represent all."
Miss Oklahoma Betty
Thompson came in second, while Miss New York Kaitlyn Monte placed third.
Kaeppeler wins a $50,000
scholarship and gets the title for one year. Her platform during the
competition was supporting and mentoring children of incarcerated parents -- a
topic close to her heart.
Kaeppeler's father, Jeff
Kaeppeler, told The Associated Press he served 18 months in federal prison for
mail fraud.
He said when his
daughter approached the family about making the personal topic her chosen
platform, they supported it even though they knew it would be discussed
publicly.
"We've seen this
come full circle," he said.
Jeff Kaeppeler said his
daughter's win on Saturday night was the best day of his life. He attended the
event in a black tuxedo with a baby blue vest and bow tie.
"It taught us that
God can turn everything into good if you let him," he said.
Laura Kaeppeler's
hometown of roughly 97,000 people, Kenosha, is about 40 miles south of
Milwaukee.
She majored in music and vocal performance at a private Lutheran liberal arts college
in Kenosha, and told pageant officials she planned to obtain a master's degree
in speech and language pathology and become a speech therapist.
Kaeppeler was crowned
the new Miss America by a panel of seven judges during a live telecast on ABC.
The event was the culmination of a week of preliminary competitions and months
of preparations for the titleholders from all 50 states plus the District of
Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As the new Miss America,
Kaeppeler will spend the next year touring the country to speak to different
groups and raising money for the Children's Miracle Network, the Miss America
Organization's official charity.
Teresa Scanlan of
Nebraska won Miss America last year at age 17 to become the pageant's youngest
winner ever. She said contestants' nerves likely were at their highest point
just before the pageant.
"You can always
breathe a sigh of relief" once the live pageant begins, Scanlan said.
Pageant officials
earlier announced the winners of preliminary competitions, including Kaeppeler,
Thompson and Miss Hawaii Lauren Cheape for talent; and Monte, Miss Texas
Kendall Morris and Miss Utah Danica Olsen for swimsuit.
Kaeppeler took home a
$2,000 scholarship for her opera performance of "Il Bacio" in the
talent competition.
Officials also said Miss
Idaho Genevieve Nutting won the $2,000 Fourpoints Award, while Miss Kentucky
Ann-Blair Thornton won the $6,000 Quality of Life scholarship.
The Miss America
Organization touts itself as the world's largest giver of scholarships to
women, with about $350,000 to be given this year at the national level.
Scanlan said she planned
to use her scholarship to help pay for law school en route to a life in
politics.
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