Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

O'Rear Crowned Festival Queen

A total of 44 beautiful young ladies graced the stage vying for the four Forest Festival crowns up for grabs.

When all was said and done, four young ladies went home as queens. Shealan O'Rear earned the title of Forest Festival Queen, while Katie Barbaree was named Princess, Haley Drake Little Miss and Kaitlyn Reed Tiny Miss.

A good crowd gathered in the old Gurdon High School Auditorium for the event. Jerry Westmoreland was the master of ceremonies and introduced the girls, giving their biographies to the judges and audience.

The theme for the pageant was Forest Festival Pageant 2000, with the stage decorated in a blue background with gold stars.

Westmoreland, a veteran MC of pageants in southwest Arkansas, kept the program going at a good clip, getting the girls on and off stage, but still allowing the judges and audience plenty of time to look and cheer.

Winnie Clark provided the entertainment, singing "Sunday Kind of Love", and "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Freddie Horne, director of the Forest Festival, gave a brief update of the events to be held on Gurdon's Main Street all day Saturday.

He said this should be a great festival with the line up involved. The day will begin with the Rotary Pancake Breakfast, followed by the opening of the arts and craft booths and the Eric Griffin Memorial Run.

At 9 a.m. those with antique cars will be getting them registered for competition, while floats will line up for the parade at that time as well. The floats will gather at the old GHS parking lot, following the route through downtown as the parade starts at 10 a.m.

Logging games will get underway at 11 o'clock. These games have been moved this year from across the tracks to where the old cleaners used to be downtown.

Entertainment will be on hand throughout the day with plenty of local performers keeping the crowd enthralled.

At noon will come the official opening of the festival, along with the chance for any politicians on hand to speak their piece.

The Go-Devil Marching Band will perform, showing those on hand why they won the Governor's Cup this year.

As a special treat, Mike Eudy and the Heathens will perform their brand of hillbilly music from 2-2:30 p.m.

At 4 o'clock comes the annual Community Development and Entertainment Club's auction, which is followed by the Halloween Costume contest at 5.

The night wraps up with the street dance at 7:30 p.m. with Bruce Webb and the Mountain Dew Band performing.

This years carnival, Horne said, will be bigger than before and will be in the old IGA grocery store parking lot on Second Street.

Then it was back to the pageantry, and having the beauties parade on stage.

Winners in the Tiny Miss category were Kaitlyn Reed as queen, Hannah Cissell took first runner up and photogenic, while Makayla Rhea was the second runner up.

In the Little Miss division, Haley Drake took the crown, with Krintin Craft first runner up, Kayla Watson second runner up and Kayla Caldwell photogenic.

For the Princess group, Katie Barbaree was the winner, with Carolanne Duke second runner up and Natalie Tarpley both first runner up and photogenic.

Shealan O'Rear is this year's Forest Festival Queen, with Valerie Swayze second runner up, Lyndi Escalante took the interview portion and Cassie Lynn was first runner up and photogenic.