Freeman Crowned Miss Tombigbee

On Saturday, June 28, 2008 the ninth annual Miss Tombigbee Pageant was held in Bibb Graves Auditorium on the campus of The University of West Alabama. 14 young ladies from around the state participated in the pageant, with the theme “Rolling on the River”. Miss Tombigbee 2008 Kimberly Kirby opened the show with “Proud Mary” and the contestants did an opening number and introduced themselves. The emcee was newly-crowned Miss Alabama 2008 Amanda Tapley. The stage was set with a mural of the “Delta Queen” paddle boat on the Tombigbee River with blue gossamer around the mural as clouds and water and the Miss America Crown was suspended above the Delta Queen. The contestants competed in a private 10 minute interview competition with the judges earlier in the day. Next the contestants competed in the on-stage question portion of the competition, answering questions about hot topics in the news. The swimsuit competition was next which resulted in a tie for top honors between Meschelle Stringer of Birmingham and Shellie Street of Mobile. Each contestant then presented a performing arts talent for the audience. The winning performance was a Ballet En Pointe by Meghan Muncher from Jasper. Next, each contestant competed in evening wear. Throughout the evening Miss Alabama 2008 Amanda Tapley and Miss Tombigbee 2008 Kimberly Kirby entertained, culminating in a slide show presentation of Kimberly's year in review followed by announcement of the winner's court. The fourth runner-up was Fielding Stomps of Tuscaloosa, third runner-up was Jaye Herrod from Prattville, second runner-up honors went to Meghan Muncher of Jasper and first runner-up was Shellie Street from Mobile. The new Miss Tombigbee 2009 is Meri-Glenn Freeman of Birmingham, she is a junior at the University of Alabama with a political science and public relations double major. Freeman performed a jazz dance as her talent presentation and her platform issue is "Target Tutoring." Additional information may be obtained at www.misstombigbee.com.