REBA CONTEST DRAWS 43 FROM FOUR STATES

If good-looking women with big hair and spangly Western clothing seemed to be more numerous than usual Sunday afternoon at the West Park Mall, the reason was a Reba McEntire look-alike contest.

Forty-three Rebas from four states competed for a chance to win prizes that included front-row tickets to the country music queen's concert Saturday at the Show Me Center.

The contest was co-sponsored by K103-FM and JCPenney. Contestants were judged on the Reba-ness of their faces, hair and clothing.

Some Rebas were tall and thin, and not all of them had Reba's trademark mane of curly red hair. But they did seem to have one thing in common -- a love for a woman they often described as "real" and "down home."

To some she is a role model.

"She's not afraid to go out and tackle things," said Hazel Hampton Burris, a hairdresser from Cape Girardeau. "Here I am 50-plus and entering a contest against 18-year-old girls."

Hampton Burris, wearing a glittering denim outfit she made and turquoise cowboy boots, said, "She puts her family first. She inspires a lot of women that they can have a career and home both."

Kerry Compte, a secretarial school student from Perryville, entered the contest hoping to win concert tickets for her boyfriend, a big Reba fan. Wonder if he knows his girlfriend is especially fond of the singer's latest video, in which she watches the man who has broken her heart leave in a boat that then explodes.

"I like her attitude," Compte said.

The dark-haired 19-year-old noted that some of the contestants seemed to have prepared for the competition more than she did. "I see a lot of really red-red-redheaded girls."

McEntire had numerous male fans in attendance. Buddy Bain, a 30-year-old shop foreman, came from East Prairie just to see the contest. He was wearing one of her tour T-shirts.

"She's down to earth, a good singer and a pretty good-looking woman, too," he said.

He pointed out his favorite Reba facsimile, then said, "The only thing I haven't seen is the so-called famous red dress." He referred to a revealing gown McEntire recently wore that had the tabloids atwitter.

"They called her the `Hillbilly Madonna,'" Bain said.

Chosen as the Reba-ist of all was a 21-year-old beauty school student from Matthews named Sonora Stockton. She beat out semifinalists Jami Crow of Elkville, Ill., Diana Falk of Cobden, Ill., Georgia Sides and Nancy Davis, both of Jackson, and Shana Colson of Paducah, Ky.

Stockton, dressed in black leather pants, is a member of McEntire's fan club but has never seen her perform in person before.

Still, she knows her. "She's not really fake. She's sincere and down home," Stockton said.

People often have remarked upon her resemblance to McEntire, but she's never paid much attention to them.

"I can't believe people think I look like her," Stockton said modestly. "She's so pretty."

She said she didn't do anything to make herself look more like Reba.

"I think this is the way I look every day."

But Harv Stroup, a fellow beauty school student and Reba fan who helped Stockton prepare for the contest, revealed the technique that may have clinched the victory.

"We made her hair a little bit bigger," he revealed.