Memories of Miss America 1992, 1997
Posted: Wednesday, September 7, 2016 11:00 pm
As we cheer, “Go, Breezy!” for Kendallville’s Miss Indiana Brianna DeCamp competing this week in the Miss America Pageant, my thoughts go back to September 1992 and 1997 when I cheered, “Go, Shelli!” and, “Go, Sara!”
I was assigned both times to travel to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to report on Shipshewana’s Miss Indiana 1992 Shelli Yoder and then Kendallville’s Miss Indiana 1997 Sara Engerman in their quests for the national title.
In 1992 and 1997, we had no cellphones, laptop computers or digital cameras. I carried a heavy typewriter, a fax machine and a 35mm film camera bag in addition to my own luggage on the flights. I used a notepad and pen to take notes.
Both times, a classmate of mine, Corrine (Donat) Zuege, East Noble 1970, accompanied Shelli and Sara as their traveling Miss Indiana Pageant Organization chaperone. That made the experience more interesting for me as a reporter, because Corrine could feed me information for my stories that I normally couldn’t get from any other source.
I also enjoyed spending time and getting to know Shelli’s parents, Roger and Marolyn Yoder, and Sara’s parents, John and Janice Engerman.
Yoder, 24 at the time, finished second runner-up, and Sara did not make the finals.
In 1992 and 1997, there were more than 300 media representatives from all over the world covering the event. Photographers and reporters from a contestant’s home state got priority seating along the 120-foot runway in the Atlantic City Convention Center for the preliminary and finals competitions. There were three seats in each row. I was assigned an inside seat so close to the runway I could reach out and grab a contestant’s ankles as she passed by.
In 1997, the media was moved to the balcony at the back of the hall. I watched the finals on TV monitor in the media center. The runway seats were sold to casino “high rollers,” and audience members in the front-row seats had complained in past years about media representatives mobbing the stage and blocking their views.
In those years, preliminary competition was Tuesday through Thursday, and the finals were on Saturday night, televised by ABC.
The media in both years were allowed to meet with the contestants at noon after morning rehearsals and at night after the preliminary competitions. They were the only occasions when I got to interview Shelli and Sara. I would make requests for interviews twice each day, and they would appear on the stage at tables set up with their state signs.
I will always remember Shelli and Sara using the occasions to consume food. Early in the week, I was the only media representative interviewing the Miss Indianas, but as the competition progressed, the media picked their favorites and Shelli especially got a lot of attention.
Sadly, I noticed during the media interviews tables with vacant chairs. Those contestants had no interviews.
Both girls had tremendous send-offs by their communities before departing for the pageant. In Shipshewana, hundreds turned out to support Shelli, who modeled her wardrobe; and in Kendallville, more than 600 people attended Sara’s send-off in Cole Auditorium.
Shelli said of the pageant before departing, “I want to show people you can come from a small community, and if you work hard you can achieve your goals.”
She tied with Miss Iowa as preliminary swimsuit winners. Yoder had never lost a swimsuit preliminary since she started in pageants at 16 years old. “I was prepared to not hear my name called, but when I did I felt, ‘No way.’”
Sara was a favorite among the media to win a swimsuit preliminary but lost to Miss California in her group. She had won the preliminary talent and swimsuit at the Miss Indiana pageant. It was the first Miss America Pageant where contestants could wear two-piece swimsuits.
“I felt more comfortable in a one-piece. I will wonder what if I wore a two-piece,” she told me after the competition.
The Atlantic City Convention Center, is cavernous with its hangar-like roof and seating for 25,000 people. The public was not allowed in during morning and afternoon rehearsals. Shelli and Sara’s parents were allowed and so was the media. In 1992 and 1997, I enjoyed taking photos of the Yoders and Engermans parading on the runway in an empty convention center.
Shelli and Sara gave me no indication they were nervous about being in the national spotlight. Both received thunderous applause and cheers from the Indiana delegation for their talent performances. Shelli sang “This Is the Moment” from the musical “Jekyll and Hyde,” and Sara tap-danced a routine choreographed by Christine Rash of TC Dance Academy in Kendallville. “I’m proud I did it with no major flops or coming away with any bruises,” laughed Sara after the talent competition.
For Shelli, more than 250 people, mostly from Shipshewana and LaGrange County, wore black sweatshirts, shouted, screamed and stomped their feet when she appeared on stage.
For Sara, more than 150 people from the Kendallville area and the state waved checkered flags to show her their support.
About 10 minutes before the Saturday night finals, the media were given a list of the 10 semifinalists who would be announced after the opening production number. In 1992, when I saw Shelli’s name, I got nervous. Right away I thought: “What if she wins? Will I get an interview?”
Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford from the “Regis and Kathie Lee” morning TV show were the show hosts in 1992. Shelli’s name was the first one he named on the list of semifinalists. They performed their talent, swimsuit and evening gown, and then five finalists were announced with Shelli’s name at the top of the list again. “My God,” I thought. “What a story.”
When she sat down to chat with the hosts on stage as each finalist did, I rushed from my runway seat to the front of the stage, pushed my way through the media mob and got close enough to take photos.
When Regis named the fourth runner-up, then the third runner-up and Shelli’s name had not been called, I started to panic. I checked my camera. She was named second runner-up. Miss Iowa was first runner-up and Miss Florida Leanza Cornett was crowned Miss America.
In 1997, the show producer placed the 5-foot-7-inch Sara in front center during rehearsals for the final night opening production number. Sara had not won a preliminary, but past Miss America winners had not won a preliminary. Watching from the media center, I thought this was a good sign.
Sara was not named a semifinalist. “That was a bummer,” she told me after the show. She also told me the reaction from some of her competitors who did not make the semifinals. Six contestants openly cried when they did not make the semifinals and continued to cry during the show. “When I tried to console one girl she said, ‘You don’t understand the pressure from my parents,’” Sara said.
On the way back to Fort Wayne from the pageant with Shelli and Sara and Corrine, I asked the flight attendants to let the pilots know there were Miss Indianas on board returning from the Miss America Pageant. When the pilots announced the special travelers, the cabin erupted in applause and cheers.
Sara and her husband reside in Fort Wayne with their three children. She continues to be involved in the pageant organization, serving as mistress of ceremonies for the Miss Limberlost Scholarship Pageant.
Shelli resides in Bloomington with her husband and three children.
http://kpcnews.com/columnists/dennis_nartker/kpcnews/article_9b7cdd71-6bff-5a45-9a27-592a43e01652.html
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