Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH -- The Sooners have crossed the Red River into Texas this week, but their arrival has nothing to do with football.
The folks from Oklahoma are invited guests of the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant, and they're here to help.
The panel of judges for the pageant this week at Will Rogers Auditorium in Fort Worth includes Kay Alexander, executive director of the Miss Oklahoma pageant.
The last two Miss Oklahomas have won the Miss America Pageant.
One of those winners, Jennifer Berry Gooden, is serving as a judge for Miss Texas' Outstanding Teen, along with Tracy Alexander, an Oklahoma State University senior and daughter of Kay.
Add to that list Tracey Way Childers, a former Miss Texas contestant who practices medicine in Tahlequah, Okla.
Kay Alexander said the key to success at the national level is helping the state winner polish her talent, wardrobe and presentation.
"It's a combination, not just one person," she said. "It's just finding the right people to enhance the girl. It's not us making the girl but giving her the right tools."
Coming south to help pick a competitor against her state got a shrug from Tracy Alexander.
"We support Texas a lot," she said. "We have good bonds, and it's a fun rivalry."
Childers, a graduate of North Mesquite High School, studied in both Texas and Oklahoma before becoming a physician.
She thinks the people in both states seem the same.
"They're absolutely very friendly people," she said.
How far does that friendship go?
Shilah Phillips, Miss Texas 2006, says she's eager to see her former competitor Lauren Nelson, who is expected to attend tonight's preliminary competition.
When Nelson was crowned Miss America in January, it left Phillips as first runner-up.
"I'm really happy to see her here," Phillips said. "She's a really good friend and a good representative of the organization."
Online: www.misstexas.org
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