Pageant News Bureau - Miss USA 2002

Mighty Mississippi

Heather Soriano is in the classic tradition of Mississippi beauty queens. She could charm the catfish right out of the river.

How do you describe such Southern charm? Dignified, but so down-home friendly. "Personality to spare," as someone said. You feel as if you have known her forever, and there was never a time when you didn't adore her.

With Amber Nicole Boatman, Miss Arkansas USA 2002

When you catch up with her by phone (because Ms. Soriano is an avid traveler), she's never too busy to tell you what's up. "I'm pinning on an interview suit." . . . "I'm stranded at the airport and they're about to call my flight." When the call comes, she starts trotting but keeps talking.

And what did we find out? She's from Philadelphia, Miss., of a very mixed heritage. She can reel off about five ethnicities in her family tree. She's educated in biology and psychology, but leans toward a career in the entertainment world. "I like the creative world." She has represented her state at Miss America. (Mississippi is a Miss America powerhouse.)

Her constant traveling companion is a tiny Yorkie named Josephine, a "furball with legs." And she has a boyfriend. He's a handsome and successful actor in Los Angeles, and she says he may be the only man in the city who isn't "monogamously challenged." We suspect there are a couple more, but we can't prove it.

Ms. Soriano says she would rather try something and fail than not try at all. That's the Miss USA spirit.

Photos courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP

Her state's secret weapon

When we talked to Amy Elkins about North Dakota, she didn't mention farming or ranching. "I'm from a small town in the coal country."

Did she say coal country? We had never heard of it. The fact is that North Dakota, a large and lovely state, is one of the least known to other Americans. Considering what it has to offer, it gets relatively few tourists or newcomers.

Some people actually seem to believe it's a frozen wasteland.

Officials are so eager to spruce up the state's image that they have joked about shortening the name to "Dakota." But if they simply told the world that North Dakota is the home of Amy Elkins, their image problems would be over.

Many people who have been struck by Ms. Elkins' looks have no idea where she is from. She has worked as a model for years, but because North Dakota is sparsely populated, she is based out of the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

Ms. Elkins is part of a long tradition of North Dakota beauties (like Angie Dickinson) who have gained fame elsewhere. And a pageant stage in Gary, Indiana, may be her springboard to international fame. But "people from North Dakota are proud of their state," she says, and that will never change.

Photos courtesy of Amy Elkins

Photo by Sam T'ang Photographix

Ohio firecracker

Kimberly Danelle Mullen, sometimes known in the fashion world simply as Kymber, is very excited about being in pageants. "This is a whole new world to me!" she exclaimed.

But the modeling business is familiar territory. She attended her first convention in high school, and by the time she was in college, the offers were pouring in. Today, with her schedule as a working model and as Miss Ohio USA, she can be a hard woman to catch up with. (We're not sure how we did it.)

Do you think models are stuck up? Of course you do. But Ms. Mullen is as down-to-earth as the girl next door. She doesn't boast about the glamorous life she leads, and she downplays her successes. "I never made it past the average working model level," she told us with an impish sigh.

Average? She once spent sixteen hours in the rugged mountains of Greece, with no running water, doing a commercial for a South Korean car while goats munched the shrubs around her. It may not be glamorous, but it's certainly not average.

The thing she enjoys most about being Miss Ohio USA is her work against ovarian cancer. As a teenager, she lost a friend to the disease, and it became a personal cause. "Now I can get people to listen," she said. They not only listen, they look.

She just shot a catalog cover in New York for a hip new clothing line called "Motor Brands." She was an extra in Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday," and she says you can actually see her.

Having grown up in an Air Force family and then worked as a model, Ms. Mullen has seen a lot of the world. Eventually, she hopes to join the U.S. Foreign Service, starting as an embassy spokeswoman and working her way up to ambassador.

Someday, when she's presenting her diplomatic credentials to some powerful head of state, somebody will pipe up and say "Weren't you the girl . . . in the goat commercial?"

Photo by Tom Weis NYC