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Rogue River lands pageant Friday's winner will go to Seaside, perhaps farther By KATHY MORGAN The city of Rogue River has something to crow about. The official home of the annual Rooster Crow is now an official part of the Miss America Scholarship Pageant. On Friday night, the reigning Miss Oregon, Jennifer Sisco-Moore, will be in town to crown Miss Rogue River 1999. This is the first year the pageant has been associated with Miss America. "Officials from the Miss Oregon Pageant approached us last year," said Norika Woodall, co-director of the pageant. "They wanted us to be a preliminary competition to Miss Oregon." And that meant some changes. The winner will still ride at the head of the Rooster Crow Parade, but her final walk may be in Atlantic City. That's because she automatically becomes a contestant in the Miss Oregon Pageant, held in July in Seaside. And if she wins that, she travels to the Miss America Pageant and the boardwalks on the shores of New Jersey. "When the Miss America Pageant people explained the scholarships available to these young ladies, we figured how can you lose?" Woodall said. "The winners are the contestants." So Woodall and her partner Teresa Krueger, Realtors at Bradley Realty, filled out the necessary papers. The new Miss Rogue River receives $1,500 in scholarship money plus an $800 grant to Image and Modeling Development in Medford. One thing is guaranteed: There will be no losers at this year's event. "Only three young women entered the pageant," said Dave Ehrhardt, president of the Rogue River Area Chamber of Commerce. "But we've talked to other people in the Miss America organization, and that's not unusual for first-time pageants." The trio competing for the crown are Angie Chaney, 17, a senior at Rogue River High School; Shannon Feil, 18, a senior at Cascade Christian; and Melissa Byrd, 22, a high-school graduate who works at Ben Franklin Pharmacy and also is a dance team coach at Rogue River High School. Ehrhardt said that the age requirements -- contestants must be between 17 and 24 -- made it harder to draw local young women. "We don't have that many living in our area," Ehrhardt said. To compete, contestants must live in the Rogue River School District. "In years past, our pageant has been mainly for high-school kids ages 15 through 17," he said. But the sparse turnout doesn't worry Woodall. "These young women are quite talented," Woodall said. "We would have liked more to enter, but these three are great. Any one of them would be a wonderful representative." Since it is a Miss America preliminary, each of them must compete in the talent competition, have a platform (a social issue they support) and they also must take part in the swimsuit competition. "That's a lot more than we required at previous pageants," said Ehrhardt. Chaney will do a dramatic reading for her talent; Byrd will perform modern ballet; and Feil will sing and play the guitar. The Rogue Valley Mall has loaned them a runway. Chuck Knerr, local deejay, will serve as master of ceremonies. The event begins at 7 p.m. Friday at Rogue River Middle School. Admission is $3 and kids 12 and under are free. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA