Miss Tennessee 2019: No swimsuits, but inner beauty counts at Knoxville pageant

This year's Miss Tennessee contestants won't wear swimsuits, and a former title holder is thrilled. 

Knoxville native Lanna Keck-Smith was Miss Tennessee 1997; she's now the state pageant's executive director. For her, the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Competition - moved to Knoxville after 67 years in Jackson, Tennessee — is a job interview.

Have you ever, she asks, gone for a job interview wearing your swimsuit? 

Twenty-seven young women compete June 26-29 at the University of Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena to become Miss Tennessee 2019. The six judges select a winner who goes on to compete for Miss America.  Tickets range from $15 to $100 for all four nights and $20 to $65 for just Saturday at misstn.org.

Why Knoxville?

For more than six decades, Miss Tennessee was crowned in Jackson. Called the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Pageant, the event sent its winner to vie for Miss America. Two women from Tennessee - Memphis’ Barbara Walker in 1947 and Kellye Cash in 1987 - won Miss America. 

Last year the Miss America organization revoked the license that allowed the Jackson pageant directors to hold the competition. The pageant moved to Knoxville and was renamed the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Competition.

Jackson is still hosting a pageant, now called the Miss Tennessee Volunteer Scholarship Pageant. Thirty-six women are competing; the winner crowned June 22 but doesn't go to compete in Miss America. 

Next year's Miss Tennessee Scholarship Competition may not be in Knoxville. The plan is to move it around Tennessee. No announcement has been made yet in what city may be the site for next year's event. 

Who's competing? 

The 27 women competing for Miss Tennessee 2019 arrive in Knoxville Sunday, June 23. 

Each has won a local pageant. They are college students with majors ranging from nursing to journalism to agribusiness to neuroscience.

Half of them sing for their talent; a few others dance. Miss Oak Ridge, Lily Rose Steed, performs a monologue titled "Whenever You Fall;" Miss Hatchie, Callie Compton, does an aerial silks routine to "Skyfall." Miss Pioneer, Lydia Hollis, plays "Boil Them Cabbage Down" on the fiddle; Miss Sullivan County, Savanna Phillips, performs "We Will Rock You" on the flute.

Each contestant gets a $1,000 scholarship; additional money goes to those who progress in the competition. Miss Tennessee 2019 receives $15,000.

More:Why the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Pageant is moving to Knoxville in 2019

More:Miss Tennessee 2019 to bring thousands of people, estimated $3.7 million to Knoxville

The Miss Tennessee foundation is also raising scholarship funds for talented high school graduates and for literacy grants to schools, Eddie Smith, the Miss Tennessee foundation chair, said. 

The contestants make some public appearances during pageant week. Those include autograph signings at 2:30-4:30 p.m. June 23 at West Town Mall and  2-3:30 p.m. Friday, June 28, at the Women’s' Basketball Hall of Fame. 

Picking Miss Tennessee

Before one woman is crowned June 29, there are three nights of preliminary competitions. The June 26-28 preliminaries begin each night at 7 p.m. at Thompson-Boling. Contestants are divided into three groups with nine women in each. They rotate through preliminary competitions. 

The women compete in categories of talent and the ability to answer a question on stage. They also compete in an evening gown contest in which each briefly states her "social impact" platform. Those platforms range from juvenile diabetes research to Special Olympics to autism awareness. 

Only the nightly preliminary talent winners are announced. Judges do score the contestants in each competition category. The preliminary composite scores are tallied to determine the top 15 contestants. Those 15 semi-finalists are announced at the start of the Saturday, June 29, finals. One will be Miss Tennessee by the evening's end.  

But there may be 16 semi-finalists. The event includes an online "people’s choice award." People can vote for their favorite candidate on https://misstn.org. Each vote costs $1; there's no vote limit. Should the people's choice not be in the judges' top 15, the pageant could start with 16 semi-finalists.

Those 15 - or 16 - contestants compete before the Thompson-Boling finals audience. Each will be asked to answer a question on stage. Judges then narrow the field to 10; each of those 10 performs her talent. 

Judges then pick the top five finalists to compete in the final evening gown and social impact contest. One of those five women becomes Miss Tennessee 2019. 

Last year’s winner won't crown her successor. Miss Tennessee 2018 Christine Williamson cut ties with Miss America and the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Competition. She affiliated herself with the Jackson pageant and is its first Miss Tennessee Volunteer.

It really is about beauty - on the inside

Ask Lanna Keck-Smith what Miss Tennessee should be. She never mentions physical beauty. 

“We are judging on intellect. We are judging on talent, a skill. We’re judging on how they act in public; if they’re at ease. We're judging on their public speaking skills.

"You are wanting a candidate who exudes herself. You are wanting a candidate who connects with people. You need someone who is going to be effective in how she acts, how she speaks and how she relates to young people, old people, every age in between.

"A pretty person on the outside can be very ugly on the inside," Keck-Smith said. "I want a solid, moral, wonderful, beautiful human being on the inside. Because she will be beautiful on the outside."

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