Pageant News Bureau - Miss America 2007, page 2

Las Vegas, Nevada

Jan. 29, 2007

Blaire Pancake, Miss Tennessee

A Tennessee treat

All the Miss America contestants can turn your head, but Blaire Pancake can make your mouth water.

When this sunny Tennessean sings the praises of Moon Pies -- the most famous export of her hometown of Chattanooga -- you want to find one and wrap your lips around it. For folks who don't know, Moon Pies are sweet, well-rounded pastries with a filling that's crunchy and gooey at the same time. To want one is to ache for one. Ms. Pancake, a thoroughly patriotic pageant girl, has promoted the shipment of Moon Pies to U.S. troops abroad.

And speaking of "sweet" and "well-rounded," everybody asks about Ms. Pancake's last name. It's the real deal. Her immigrant ancestors' moniker was the German word for pancake, maybe because they could whip up a bodacious breakfast. When they moved to America, they opted for the literal translation. And as the Belgian chef would say, "Voilà."

"Pancake" is the kind of name that can make a kid feel conspicuous, and Ms. Pancake says she sometimes griped about it as a little girl. Now she's proud of it. "It gets attention," she says. But she would get attention under any name.

If you think Ms. Pancake does nothing but look and sound delicious, pardon our sweet tooth. She's a talented, intelligent, hard-working woman, the kind of woman a modern Miss America has to be.

She's pursuing a career in the law, and one of her main academic pursuits is archaeology. Law and archaeology might sound like an odd combination, but she explained to us that Native American grave sites throughout the country need to be documented and in some cases legally protected. So the two specialties go hand in hand.

Ms. Pancake did pageants as a kid until she lost interest, but she was lured back years later by the scholarship and community service opportunities in the Miss America system. Now, after visiting Hollywood and tasting a new level of fame, she's open to show business if the opportunities are right.

If they ever shoot another "Mummy" movie, Ms. Pancake would be our choice to play the beautiful archaeologist. She'd be perfect in a pith helmet, a low-cut khaki blouse and tight khaki short shorts. Oh, and sensible boots. When the Mummy's around, heels are a terrible idea.

"Legs" in the running

The District of Columbia -- the "D.C." in Washington, D.C. -- is one of the most unusual places in the United States. It's smaller than the smallest of the 50 states, but in many ways it's more powerful than any of them. It's the custom-designed center of the mighty American government.

People from throughout the United States and the world come to work in D.C., mostly to promote the interests of folks back home. But after living for a while in the District, many people see it as their real home. That's what happened to Kate Michael, Miss District of Columbia.

Kate Michael, Miss District of Columbia

Her first big pageant victories were in Georgia. Twice she competed at Miss Georgia -- once as Miss Gwinnett County, representing the home of PNB headquarters (a bit of pageant glory in itself.) But when she landed a job with one of the Peach State's U.S. senators, she moved to the nation's capital, and life changed. "I started to think of myself as a D.C. person," she recalls.

Ms. Michael chose to pursue her graduate degree at Johns Hopkins (after finishing the University of Georgia in three years), and she redrew her road map to Miss America. She competed for Miss District of Columbia, and she won. "I think now it was for the best that I didn't win Miss Georgia," she says, but hindsight can be a great anesthetic.

You're probably wondering whether Ms. Michael will run for office someday. Maybe so, maybe not, but she will be part of the process around the U.S. Capitol. She plans to become "not a lobbyist exactly, but an advocate." She wants to influence the kinds of laws that Congress passes, because she wants to make a difference in people's live.

Photos courtesy of Kate Michael

And her nickname -- "Legs" -- rhat's short for "legislation," right? No. Ms. Michael is a tall dancer with a showgirl's body (we got her to admit it) and there's nothing short about those legs. To use the lingo of D.C., they're monumental.

The dancing queen of Delaware

Jamie Ginn is a practical scientist, a chemical engineer. She can break down problems to the molecular level, then crunch numbers and create computer simulations to solve them. It's very important work, and the fact that she doesn't find it dull is a sign of how smart she is. She started out in chemistry "just to get into medical school. But I fell into an interest I never knew I had."

For all her brains, Ms. Ginn is no geek. When she peels off her white coat, you should see her move. She has rhythm, or as they say in the chemistry lounge, "rhythmium."

Right now she's making a move on the Miss America crown. She's representing Delaware. Like all good Miss America contestants, she sings the praises of her state, and since Delaware has a world-renowned chemical industry, she also gets to educate people about her work. "Chemicals are in everything you touch," she told us. (If we'd known that before, maybe we would we have touched fewer things.)

Crowning photo by Joe Whiteko / PNB; others courtesy of Jamie Ginn

Her roots are in both Delaware and neighboring New Jersey, the two states that gave birth to the American beauty contest culture. She got her start in competition in pageant-happy Ocean City, N.J., where even crustaceans have contests. At age 16, she won the independent and prestigious Miss Ocean City Scholarship Pageant, as well as its talent category.

She went on to compete at Miss New Jersey three times, getting as far as first runner-up, and then competing at National Sweetheart. (Because she's a stickler for correct data, she wanted us to know that she did not compete at Miss New Jersey four times, or five, as some have written. It was three.)

But Delaware is home now, and it's where the "chemistry was right," as a PNB writer so aptly put it. And if she wins Miss America, or even if she doesn't, "I would love a career in entertainment." The sexy lady scientist is a favorite on TV these days, and a scientist who can dance ... why not?

One of Ms. Ginn's idols is a former Miss America who went on to show business success -- Mary Ann Mobley of Mississippi. Ms. Mobley once starred in a "Man from U.N.C.L.E." episode as a spy who wore poisonous lipstick and killed men with a kiss. We thought Ms. Ginn had never heard of it, but indeed she had. "We were joking about it when I was in Hollywood."

Only a chemist would joke about lethal lips.

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