Pageant News Bureau - Ashleigh Jones

Our first PNB town hall meeting was mostly a tame affair. Two hundred ordinary people showed up to ask our experts about pageants and the future of pageant news. There were a few pointed questions -- about kiddie contests, out-of-control queens and unfit judges -- but they were just the questions we had expected. The PNB staff was eminently well prepared.

Then came the issue no one had anticipated.

"How long can you keep ignoring Ashleigh Jones?" a member of the audience demanded. "She deserves to be a PNB cover girl."

"That's right," someone else added, not bothering to stand. Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd, so that the moderator had to call the meeting to order. Clearly, many people felt that Ms. Jones had never gotten the glory she deserved, at least not at pageant.com.

The next questioner broke the tension. "Who's Ashleigh Jones?" he asked, and the crowd roared with laughter. The gentleman was not a pageant fan

After the meeting broke up, our staffers immediately set out to correct PNB's slight of Ms. Jones. She had certainly earned our interest, finishing as first runner-up in both the Miss Illinois Teen USA and Miss Illinois USA pageants. We had, in fact, envisioned her as a cover model since spying her at the Venus Swimwear International Model Search in 2002. But what was she up to now?

Fortunately, it didn't take us long to find out. She was still in Illinois, attending college and working for a TV station. And she sounded very happy.

"I'm getting married," she said.

That's the news. On May 31, 2003, the legendary Miss Jones will be a Miss no longer. The arrow of Cupid was right on time, even if PNB was slow on the draw in making her a cover girl.

Or were we slow after all? If this profile had come earlier, it would have been merely a tribute. Now, it's a wedding present.

Photo by Todd Ferren

Beauty in transition