Miss Southeastern is first runner-up in Miss Louisiana Pageant
Contact: Christina Chapple
6/19/06
HAMMOND –Blair Abene, Miss Southeastern Louisiana University 2006, was first runner-up in Saturday's (June 17) Miss Louisiana Pageant in Monroe.
Abene, 19, a junior vocal performance and mass communication major from Hammond, also won the pageant's talent preliminary June 15 with her performance of the opera aria "O Mio Babbino Caro."
As first runner-up and a talent preliminary winner, she will receive $5,300 in scholarships. She will also compete along with other pageant first-runners up from across the country in the national "Sweetheart Pageant" in September.
Abene advanced farther in the state pageant than any of her fellow Southeastern title holders since Miss Southeastern Phyllis Kelly won the crown in 1977.
"Blair was absolutely so perfect," said her sponsor Jackie Dale Thomas, director of leadership development/student activities. "She is such an amazing young lady at such a young age and such a gracious contestant. I have no doubt that one day she will be Miss Louisiana and even Miss America."
Abene will talk about her pageant experience and her platform, Tourette's Awareness Reaching Teens," with WAFB-TV anchor and Southeastern graduate Kellee Hennessey at 8 a.m. Saturday, June 24, on the station's "9 News Saturday" program.
More News...
