YEAR AS MRS. MISSOURI WAS REWARDING, BUSY

"I didn't think I was emotionally up to it," says Melody Hutson when she talks of winning the title of Mrs. Missouri one year ago in Cape Girardeau.

Her husband had been sent to Saudi Arabia just days before the pageant, and she knew her daughter might also be leaving to serve in Desert Storm.

"My husband was shipped out on Monday and I competed on Saturday. I was still trying to get adjusted to his leaving," she said.

"After the interview I thought I had blown it. So I just decided I would try to have fun. I was really surprised when I won."

A few days after the pageant, her husband Jim managed to get to a phone and called her from the Middle East. When he asked how the pageant had gone, she answered, "You're married to Mrs. Missouri."

Both her husband and her daughter, Sheri, who is in the Army and was deployed a week after the pageant, are back in the states now. But although her husband was gone for nearly four months of her reign, Hutson said she has many fond memories of her year as Mrs. Missouri.

"I felt really honored and challenged to wear the crown for Missouri this year. I've got lots of memories from it, but it went by really fast," she said. "I'd say to anyone thinking about competing, you have to be committed to the state and to your family."

Hutson also has a son, Matt, 16.

She said one of the most rewarding experiences of the past year has been appearing in the Kenny Rogers Cerebral Palsy Telethon and working with kids at the CP center in Sikeston. She serves on the board at the center and will continue to do so for three more years.

"Those kids just really grab your heart," she said. "You just fall in love with some of them, and it makes you look inside yourself. It makes you realize how fortunate you are to have healthy kids."

Hutson has traveled the state promoting causes such as the CP center. She also has appeared on talk shows near her native Seattle, Wash. and become somewhat of a local celebrity.

"People began asking me for my autograph right after the pageant. I thought: `You didn't want my autograph 10 minutes ago, why now?'"

She also competed in the national pageant in Las Vegas last year. Hutson said at 5'2", she was the shortest contestant in the pageant.

"I think I'm average, but the tallest woman in the pageant was Mrs. Alaska. She was 6'1," Hutson said. Mrs. Washington, who is six feet tall, won the pageant.

Hutson said the most important thing the judges look for in a Mrs. Missouri candidate is that she's a "real person."

What she calls "Pageant Pattys" contestants that are so rehearsed they appear fake and superficial are a definite turn off.

"You're going to be meeting a lot of people and representing the state," she said. "They want someone who is confident and able to handle pressure in public. But they want someone who is a real person."

Hutson said the most difficult portion of the pageant and the one that is worth the most points with the judges is the interview.

But nearly as difficult is the one question contestants are asked on stage, she said. Contestants have no idea what question they'll be asked.

"It could be anything," she said. "A question in one of the pageants (that) I was training another girl for was `I don't like peaches. Convince me I should eat one.' Who would expect that?"

Contestants also are judged on their appearance in swimsuits and evening gowns. Hutson said the swimsuit competition requires a lot of confidence.

"You know you're being judged," she said. "They are looking at your shape and you can get self-conscious, especially when you're competing against 23-year-olds."

But as nerve-wracking as it might be, Hutson said she recommends getting involved in the pageant. She said many married women believe they don't have much to offer. But for those women, a change in attitude is in order, she said.

"I think so many women live their lives and look back to say `If only I would have ...'

"I believe you get out of life what you put into it. When I look back I want to feel good about what I've done, and I think I will. I don't have any regrets."

Hutson said she plans to continue to train local girls to compete in pageants. But she doesn't plan to compete in any more herself, at least not for a while.

"As of right now I don't plan to compete in any more," she said. "But that doesn't mean I won't."