THERE SHE IS...BEATY PAGENT CONTESTANTS TRAIN FOR CHANCE TO HEAR THEIR NAMES CALLED

Melody Hutson cried when she was crowned Mrs. Missouri in 1991.

"My husband had left for Saudi Arabia the Saturday before the pageant and I just didn't think I was up to competing," Hutson said. "But when they called my name, it was like a dream.

"I thought, `Are they really calling my name?'" she said. "It's like no other feeling in the world."

Now, Hutson and partner Shari Marvel train girls and women throughout Southeast Missouri in social and competitive graces that someday could win them a spot in the limelight, a trophy, a bouquet of roses and a glittering crown.

Hutson and Marvel formed Raining Crowns, which organizes four beauty pageants a year and trains girls to be beauty queens.

"Beauty pageants aren't for everyone," Hutson said. "If a girl just isn't cut out for it, I'll sit down with her and help her find something she is good at -- like cheerleading, music or sports -- because there's nothing more discouraging than to continue to compete and never win."

Julie Stallings competed in the Junior Miss SEMO Fair pageant last Sunday.

Stallings said. "I'm doing it because I enjoy it, I really have fun answering the questions and being out there on the stage.

"I tried once to get a coach and practice a lot, but then it got to be too much work," she said. "I've learned a lot about how to walk and how to answer questions by just watching the other girls in the pageants."

Stallings, 16, of East Prairie, is the reigning Dogwood Azalea Princess of Charleston. On Sunday she was named second runner-up in the Junior Miss SEMO Fair competition.

"Being crowned is a wonderful feeling," she said. "Everyone knows you, you get to represent the festival, you get to talk to everyone and tell them about your hometown and meet tons of people."

But one of the main reasons Stallings competes is for the scholarship money that several carry with their top awards. Stallings wants to attend Tulane University in New Orleans where, she said, she will study business to become a "chief executive officer of some major corporation in New York City."

"It's really a great opportunity," she said. "If you have the right attitude, it can be a lot of fun, too."

Dressed in layer upon layer of pink, frilly ruffles accented with decorative sequins, 12-year-old Christina Icaza was crowned Little Miss SEMO Fair Sunday.

"This is the biggest pageant I've ever won," Icaza said, clutching her trophy. "I am so excited."

Icaza was not the only child in her family to be crowned Sunday. Her 18-year-old sister Jennifer was dubbed Miss SEMO Fair just minutes after her younger sibling. The two squealed with delight and embraced after the pictures had been taken by an onslaught of photographers.

Christina, who has competed in pageants for the past four months, said she asked her mother if she could enter after her sister had been entering beauty pageants for years.

"I watched my sister and just knew that was what I wanted to do, too," she said.

Dianne Icaza, the girls' mother, pays for pageant coaching lessons for her daughters.

"We practice answering questions, poise and stage presence at home," said Dianne. "It takes a lot of time, but it's something they really enjoy."

Shopping for gowns, active wear and swimsuits can be expensive, but Dianne Icaza takes it in stride.

"The dresses can be expensive, but they can be worn again and again," she said. "The clothes are something that the kids need anyway."

Although she has never forced her daughters to become involved in the pageants, she openly encourages the activity.

"I tell them to just go out and do their best and don't worry about it if you don't win," she said.

"The pageants give the girls a lot of poise and self-confidence; they both have made a lot of new friends," she said. "It's just good, healthy fun."

When she is not planning pageants, Hutson coaches girls of all ages to walk like a queen, answer questions like a worldly woman, and to hold herself like royalty.

"There is a pageant walk," Hutson explained. "There's also a model's walk but a pageant walk is much different.

"There is a glide in a pageant walk; it's very controlled and elegant," she said. "Girls have to learn to control their hips and not to sway -- it's something they have to think about to control."

Although she has given group seminars, Hutson prefers to work with the girls on a one-on-one basis.

"Each girl needs to work in different areas," she said. "On an individual basis, we can address problem areas."

During their sessions, the girls are counseled on dress, poise, stage presence and even workout and weight-loss programs if necessary.

Hutson especially works to improve the girls' skills in the interview segment of the competition "because that's what makes or breaks you," she said.

"Like it or not, the interview is where the judges decide if they like you," she said. "Girls have to learn to project their voices, to speak clearly, not to ramble on and not to speak with an accent of any kind."

Hutson believes that competing in a beauty contest should be the prerogative of the girl; not the girl's mother.

"I think a contestant is too young when a mother has to drag a child across the stage, forcing them to be there," she said. "They need to be big enough to say `I want to do that;' it has to come from within the girl -- not the mother."

Raining Queens organizes four local pageants every year as well as a state pageant in Kentucky. Hutson said there's no other way she would rather spend her time.

"I really enjoy seeing the girls grow and learning to stretch themselves," she said. "They grow and change, learning valuable social skills and interview skills they would not otherwise have picked up."

For Stallings, it's just the thrill of hearing her named called.

"It's like nothing you can ever imagine," she said. "Nothing."