Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Students Visited By Reigning Miss Arkansas

Miss Arkansas, Paula Gaye Montgomery, visited with Blevins Public Schools' students on Wednesday, March 27, with two performances. The 24- year-old beauty queen told the youngsters a little something about herself and entertained the audience with a song. She let the students in on her secrets to success, but not in the way one might imagine.

Montgomery has not always been the elegant young woman that she is today.

When whe was only five, she was declared legally blind. She reflected on how the other children teased her, and called her names like "four eyes." Then, in fourth grade she was able to get contact lenses, and finally the boy whom she had been admiring since first grade noticed her.

The senior at the University of Arkansas said she never won any popularity contests in high school. She competed in beauty pageants since she was only five years old; however, she did not win one unitl she was 13. The thought of quitting never entered her mind.

Her pageant life made her lose a lot of friends who thought that she was a snob. She told the gathering of students that her wardrobe was furnished by carport sales for a good many years while growing up. She knew that she wanted to be Miss Arkansas and compete in the Miss America pageant.

After winning over $40,000 dollars in scholarship money, she can prove that entering pageants was not a waste of time.

In junior high school, this young cheerleader learned a valuable lesson after someone paid a bully two dollars and a pack of cigarettes to beat her up. "You must decide who your friends are," she emphasised to the student body, "and you must learn from your mistakes."

In high school, she led a very sheltered life, because she was an only child. Her curfew as a senor was before 11 p.m. and that was only after cheering at a ballgame.

The year she was only 19, she was named second runner-up in the Miss Arkansas pageant. She was very excited to be able to compete so well against girls much older than she was.

Two weeks after the pageant, something terrible happened. Some friends were having a party at the lake in Hot Springs, and everyone was so excited and proud of Paula. Her head began to swell with pride, and then she began to drink. Not being a drinker, she soon became intoxicated. She decided that she must go back to her hotel after becoming violently ill with the effects of the alcohol. During this journey through downtown, she became sick.

A policeman pulled the group over, and Paula Montgomery was taken to jail for public intoxication after she threw up on the arresting officer's shoes. At the police station, she found that no one cared about how well she had done in the Miss Arkansas Pageant.

She stayed in the drunk tank for one hour and two minutes. At this time Montgomery was released. No ticket! No fine! They just let her go. She was so excited. No one would ever have to know about the incident. Soon that excitement ended, because back at the U of A, rumors of a DWI and accident were quickly spreading across the campus.

After four years, she again found herself at the state pageant. This time she won the Miss Arkansas title. She was prepared to do better than anyone had done in a long time at the Miss America Pageant. Then, it happened. The press was looking for her. Someone had faxed a copy of the police report to all news agencies in the state.

She spent 24 hours in panic and hiding out. She had to tell her parents before they found out from the news agencies. It did not make the television news, but it did hit the Arkansas Democart-Gazette the next morning. The painful process of preparing herself for the media at the Miss America Pageant began.

The pageant hopeful had nightmares of Hard Copy or some other such news show asking her questions about her intoxication. For 18 long days she sat in fear of being approached by the media. Fortunately, no one asked any questions. She was named second runner-up in Miss America Pageant.

Although Montgomery had learned her lesson about the seriousness of alcohol and had straightened her life up after only one mistake, the consequences could have been her downfall.

This small-statured young woman believes that she can make a difference in the lives of others. She stated that she had received over 15,000 letters. Sadly, Miss Arkansas recalled a letter from a fourth grader who told Montgomery that she knew it was wrong to use cocaine, because her family members used it all the time. That child realized the mistakes of her elders. She choked back the tears as she replied, "It (the letter) broke my heart."

She told of another child who wanted her to be her mommy, and yet another who came up to her sobbing uncontrollably because the Cabot native had not won the Miss America title. The child was told that it was okay, because Miss Arkansas was what Montgomery really wanted to be.

Days that she does not get to visit a school are lonely days. After speaking in the school setting, the image of perfection has decided to change her major and become a journalism teacher.

Paula Montgomery told the Blevins' group that she often did not wear makeup, and her favorite breakfast was Egg McMuffin and a Dr Pepper. This has caused her some problems with confused restaurant personnel. One drive-through window clerk asked her what the sign on her car meant. She politely told him that the car was the official car of Miss Arkansas. He questioned, "Why are you driving it?"