N.C. native finds success in pageantry

When Kendria Perry was five years old, her parents took her to a movie and then stopped at a store in Raleigh on the way home and bought her a toy keyboard.

They were surprised that, when Perry began playing with the toy keyboard, she could play songs from the movie that they had just seen.

Perry's skill on the piano has propelled her from Raleigh to the UNC School of the Arts, to the Miss Forsyth County pageant and then on to Carnegie Mellon University.

In July, Perry, 24, won the Miss Pennsylvania pageant, which means she will represent that state at the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas in January.

She was in town yesterday for a reception at Lewisville Baptist Church. Friends, family and people involved with the Miss Forsyth County pageant turned out to greet her.

Perry is currently working on a master's degree in arts management at Carnegie Mellon.

She said that Winston-Salem will always be special because of her experiences in the local pageant and at the School of the Arts, from which she graduated in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in music.

N.C. native finds success in pageantry

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