Every year the University of Mississippi student activities association hosts the “Parade of Beauties” in search of the “most beautiful.”
This year, The University of Mississippi’s 2017 Most Beautiful winner was contestant number 57, Blair Wortsmith.
Wortsmith received the crown and title gracefully in her elegant amethyst colored gown.
The Parade of Beauties pageant has been an annual event dating back to the year of 1951. The pageant was held on February 1, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. in the Gertrude Ford Center of the Performing Arts. Students, friends, and family of the contestants filled the Ford Center’s seats to almost full capacity.
The evening starts off with an opening number of all of the contestants walking onto the stage and up onto the risers so that the crowd can get a quick glance of every contestant.
Most Beautiful 2016, Laine Mansour, introduced the contestants as a group. Associate director of student activities association, Alex Lindstrom, and Mr. Ole Miss, Cole Putman, were this year’s spokespersons for the first round of the pageant. Lindstrom and Putman introduced each contestant by name for the crowd. An Ole Miss Army ROTC gentleman escorted each contestant. The escorts for the evening were Dustin Dykes, Donald Lorbecke, and Mitchell Nelson. Following the first round, in order to give the judges ample time to choose the Top 25 contestants, Miss University 2017 Leah Gibson and Kolbe Alsobrooks provided musical entertainment.
Succeeding Gibson and Alsobrooks musical pieces was the announcement of the Top 25. In no specific order, the Top 25 Contestants were: Holli White, Hannah Perrigin, Faith Banis, Elyssa Howell, Charley Ann Nix, Haley Hydrick, Blair Wortsmith, Hallie Austin, Ashlyn Hoock, Garrow Miles, Sims Peters, Whitney Young, Corinn Figueroa, Sarah Sutton, Laura Ramsey, Madison McCay, Kalen Francois, Gabriella Elnicki, Savannah Buchanan, Cecelia Moseley, Noelle Woods, Abby Null, Anna-Lauren Hale, Nicole Covington and Taylor Whitlock. Following the announcement of the Top 25 was a brief intermission before Miss University 2017, Leah Gibson, and ASB President, Austin Powell, took the stage to announce the Top 25 Competition. After the Top 25 competition was concluded, Leah Gibson and Kolbe Alsobrooks each performed one last musical piece before we wished a farewell to Most Beautiful 2016, Laine Mansour.
Once it was time to announce the Top 10 Beauties, the crowd grew anxious. In this year’s Top 10 Beauties there was a tie, therefore making the number of girls announced eleven. The Parade of Beauties 2017 Top 10 Beauties were: Hannah Perrigin, Faith Banis, Holli White, Garrow Miles, Sims Peters, Laura Ramsey, Hallie Austin, Haley Hydrick, Charley Ann Nix, Ashlyn Hoock and Sarah Sutton.
This pageant represented the true beauty and grace that swarms the University of Mississippi’s campus on a daily basis.
Chandler Tillman is a social media intern for HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at cgtillma@go.olemiss.edu.
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