RUSSELL SPRINGS, Ky. - This small central Kentucky town can now lay claim to something no one else in the state has: it's the home of Miss USA.
Mayor Brian Walters has already contacted the state to get the new blue "Home of Tara Conner, Miss USA 2006" signs for the city limits. And he's planning a homecoming parade for when Conner returns on either June 9 or 10, depending on when Gov. Ernie Fletcher can make it. A local car dealer plans to give her a new car as part of the parade, Walters said.
Conner's win was the hot topic in the town of 2,497 - about 80 miles south of Lexington - after she was crowned Kentucky's first-ever Miss USA last week.
"There's a lot of buzz, a lot of buzz," said Darren Gossage, principal of Russell County High School, where Conner graduated in 2004. "It's a big thing for our community."
"Everybody's so excited for her, and so happy," said Brooke Bunch, her former boss at Brooke & Buc's Roadhouse, a steakhouse where Conner waited tables until recently. "She worked her whole life for that moment."
Conner, 20, a Somerset Community College student and Body Glove swimwear model, has been competing in pageants since age 4, when she was third runner-up in the Casey County Apple Festival pageant. She won the title of Young Miss Russell County at the county fair when she was 13 and by 2002, she was second runner-up in Miss Teen USA.
Chanda Judd, 17, a senior at Russell County High who worked as a waitress with Conner, said Conner has always been "fun, witty, down to earth. She likes jeans and T-shirts - she's not always fixed up."
Judd said she told everyone before the Miss USA pageant that Conner "was gonna walk away with this one."
Conner will represent the United States July 23 in the Miss Universe competition in Los Angeles.
Source: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/14452657.htm
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