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Show " -? " x V V ' NL . V f v v J . - I I A - 1 :l X. Y'i . 1 1 MISS TEENAGE AMERICA j Kellie Thomson of Bountiful, is enjoying : lots of travel, and meeting hundreds of ; By ROSELYN KIRK i' A lot has happened to Kellie Thomson, 280 Peach Tree Lane in Bountiful, since : she was crowned Miss National Teenager last August in Atlanta, Ga. '- NOT THE least of which is a contract :- for a screen test with Universal Studio, ": which is scheduled for August after her :: reign as Miss National Teenager ends. r. In addition to the screen test, she has become a good friend of movie actor Chill Wills and has promoted movies with him in several states. She has traveled to 27 states since December to crown the state . contestant for this year's Miss National I Teenager. . LAST SATURDAY night Kellie was at the Hotel Utah in Salt Lake City where she crowned Carol Sharp of Provo as Utah's contestant in the pageant. Since February 15, Kellie has been based in Atlanta, Georgia and has traveled to 12 states to participate in the state pageants. During the pageants she performs master of ceremonies duties and teaches charm, modeling and etiquette to the contestants. : IN ADDITION, she lunches with edi-;- tors, speaks at openings, and makes television and radio appearances. "I have : to force myself not to be afraid, but it's hard to be stuck with strangers and be so. far away from my family." : Kellie says that most local television - interviewers ask her about the pageant and how she's changed during her reign. But many things haven't changed, Kellie says. She still plans to attend Utah State University in Logan this fall and live with : her friends from Bountiful High. KELLIE WILL graduate with her class . : at Bountiful, although she will have to fly home for the graduation on May 27 and fly ! : out again the next day. Whenever she is in : Bountiful, she attends school four hours a i day. Kellie just needs English credit for : graduation, but takes several other ! classes to fill out her schedule, i After graduation, she will leave for Texas and is scheduled to be in Hawaii on June 12. "The worst thing about flying is when 1 arrive and there's no one there to meet me." Kellie must wear her crown and banner whenever she travels or .'- makes public appearances. j "IF I'M ALONE in a city and don't have I any public appearances to make, 1 just ! take off my crown and banner and go shopping. It's pretty hard to relax when : you're wearing a crown." : Kellie said she had never planned for a movie career, but when she saw an article in "Newsweek" Magazine about screen testing for Universal Studios, she wrote a ; letter asking for an interview. The test ; was arranged through the Miss National ; " Tennager Director Cybil Shaffer. : IN ADDITION to her screen test, Kellie I will film a small part in the television i I series "Future Cop" on April 19. The show will air two weeks later. Meeting new people is one of the pluses in Kellie's reign. She met Chill Wills on a people during her reign as Miss Teenage America. plane to Mexico City and they have corresponded ever since. Kellie says Chill Wills, who is 74 years old, is "just like my grandpa. He even called to wish me Merry Christmas." SHE MADE public appearances at theater openings with Chill Wills. During the openings she met movie star Rhonda Fleming. When Kellie and Chil Wills did a talk show in Missoula, Montana, they told jokes together. Kellie also delivered her essay, "What's Right With America" that she wrote for the pageant competition. In addition to celebrities, Kellie visited the Georgia Legislature with Gov. George Busby in Atlanta, Ga. "I wasn't a bit frightened. The Georgia Legislature was so nice," she said. Kellie wears red, white and blue clothes for all the personal appearances, ap-pearances, many of which she makes herself. WHEN KELLIE is home or whenever she has a few minutes while traveling, she answers letters. She has eight or nine shoe boxes filled with letters from all over the country and she's answered every one. She spends two or three hours a day answering an-swering mail. Kellie gets mail from all kinds of people. "One guy in the army wrote me a love letter." Others who see Kellie on television write to her. One little boy from New York wrote and said, "If you come to New York, my dad can make you a model." KELLIE ALSO writes to girls she has met during state pageants. One girl wrote and asked her if she thought the girl should lose weight. "I wasn't sure I could remember who she was, but I looked her up in the pageant book and wrote back to her. I can't remember all the people I meet. "Sometimes crazy things happen during dur-ing the pageants," Kellie says. One time in North Carolina, she waited for the drum roll and announced the winner. But somehow she looked at the wrong name. "I turned beet red and then had to ask who the real winner was. It was terrible." KELLIE WILL be gone most of the summer until August 20 when she will give up her crown in Atlanta. Kellie's mother Lela of Bountiful will be there that night. Kellie is also hoping her father Don and her brothers and sisters from Caldwell, Cald-well, Idaho can be there in the audience. Kellie says in spite of the benefits, her reign "has been exhausting. I'll be relieved when it's over." But it does have some advantages. Last Friday, after the pageant at the Hotel Utah, she was invited to meet Donnie Osmond. KELLIE SAYS that if the screen test at Universal studios turns out well, she may attend UCLA for her last three years of college. In addition she has won a fashion merchandizing scholarship to Barbizon International in New York. But that is all in the future. For now, Kellie just leaned back and sighed. "I don't know whether I'd want to live this way forever. People aren't very relaxed around me and it's hard to be myself." |