MISS JACKSON HEADS TO STATE CONTEST

JACKSON -- Autumn Crushell White enters next week's Miss Missouri pageant with two years of previous pageant experience in her corner, the song "How Can I Live?" on her lips and -- just in case -- an ability to recite the alphabet backwards.

The 20-year-old White, who won the title of Miss Jackson last November, will sing the hit song during competition for Miss Missouri June 3-6 in Mexico, Mo.

White is from Ewing, a town of 450 between Hannibal and Kirksville, and attends Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. None of the seven previous Miss Jacksons has been from Jackson either.

The rules stipulate that any citizen of the U.S. may enter, and Jackson draws many entries from elsewhere because the pageant offers one of the richest scholarships -- $2,500 -- in the state.

White said she entered the Miss Jackson pageant because of its reputation. "It's a well-respected pageant," she said. "The director (Marybeth Williams) and the organization are known for being very supportive."

One form that support takes is booking the contestant for speaking engagements to help improve her confidence in front of audiences. Last week, White spoke before a number of service clubs in Cape Girardeau and Jackson about the issue she will stress if she becomes Miss Missouri -- communication disorders, particularly those affecting deaf people.

A speech pathology major at Southwest Missouri State University, White said she has became aware of the special problems faced by deaf people after taking sign language classes in college.

She tells a story about a deaf man who worked in a factory and was good at his job but failed a test because he was not provided with an interpreter. "When he finally did have an interpreter he passed it," she said.

She said society needs to be more involved in providing access to deaf people and that part of her role as Miss Missouri would be "informing society on what we need to do."

Religion is important in White's life as well. While many college students were heading to a beach for spring break last year, she went to a revival. She also is part of a group of Christian young adults that started an outreach program to help children in the projects.

"We bring them back to church, feed them what may be their only hot heal in a week, have clothing drives, have skits, puppet shows and sing songs," she said.

This is White's third trip to the Miss Missouri pageant. She was Miss Hannibal in 1996 and Miss Mark Twain Lake in 1997. Her other titles are Miss Lewis County Fair and Junior Miss Missouri Sweetheart.

She won the Miss Hannibal title while still a 17-year-old high school senior. Her classmates were unimpressed until they noticed that she got to leave school to make appearances.

"Once they see how much work goes into it the more respected it is," she said.

White learned to recite the alphabet backwards in the first grade after hearing her grandmother do it at family reunions. She said it comes in handy "when you're looking things up."

Also competing in the Miss Missouri pageant will be Angela Scherer, a Cape Girardean who graduated from Jackson High School and is a veterinary student at the University of Missouri, and Patches King, a music major at Southeast.

Scherer is Miss Northwest, and King represents Trenton.