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Miss Maine: In hiding? lt;upiphoto)Miss Maine sailing high on road to Atlantic CityBANGOR (UPI) — Sailing balloons and making public aapearances has taken up so muck time that Valerie Ann Crooker has had to go into hiding for a while.Miss Crooker, 24, on her way to a broadcasting career, is Maine’s entrant in the Miss America beauty pageant and promoters say she has the best chance a woman from this state has ever had.“I went to a different festival every day for about two weeks straight, and it was tiring, especially since I’m trying to get my dance steps down for the competition at the same time,” she said from her Bangor dance studio.Her director. Arvilla Verceles, said Valerie has been sought by more groups, and is more talkative and interesting than any previous Miss Maine in recent memory.But with the contest less than a month away, Ms. Vercelles has Valerie under cover.Miss Crooker, a Brunswick resident and part-owner of her family's mobile home park, stands Meet 7-inches tall, with chestnut brown hair, brown eyes, “and a tan,” she says.A year ago she returned from a brief residency in Florida to represent the Pine Tree State in the Miss U.S.A. pageant, but did not place in the final national selections.‘‘I entered that contest thinking it was the Miss America competition. I made amistake but ended up winning the Maine title. Boy, was I surprised,” she said.Shortly after that she discovered her favorite hobby and launched her new career all at once while filming a commercial for a Bangor television station.“I went up in a hot air balloon to film a commercial for channel seven. It was a great experience — sort of like being in Oz,” she said.Since then she has qualified for a balloon pilot's license and sails all around central Maine.“One day we got carried away by the wind, and we ended up landing in the back yard of a couple of really short people living in Winslow. They were so small, and we floated down into their yard just like in the wizard of Oz.”This year Miss Crooker went to the right place for the Miss America competition. She began by winning the Miss Brunswick title, and was selected from among 35 contestants on June 13 to be Miss Maine.She won that pageant with her performance as a tap dancer — a hobby she has practiced since her first lesson at the age of four.“I’ve been in quite a few variety shows, and I’m practicing really hard for the Miss America pageant,” said Miss Crooker, who is also a former Miss Brunswick High(Continued Page 12, Col. 4)• Miss Maine
Newspaper Details
Biddeford Journal Tribune
Biddeford, Maine, US
Sat, Aug 16, 1980
Page 29
Full Page
Clipped by
Leforest W.
ME, USA 05 Jul 2018
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