The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 107

IT HAPPENED HEREABOUTS By Gerald Hollv Sunday Sermonette 1 tint tSihPTrt By lim Andrews SHE HAD JUST endured a bout with mononucleosis, she had suffered two previous disappointments in the same contest over the past two years, and her toes were sore. But the thing that bothered Nashville's Marsha Alice McDonald most in this year's Miss Tennessee Pageant was the fact that none of the judges seemed to be paying any attention to her. "livery night, when you are being judged, you are supposed to look at the 'judges," explains Marsha. "I ON A HOT DAY, whi'e driving through Maryville, I saw this church sign. Its message makes you stop and think! Shirley Smith, Ashland City, Tenn.

The 1971 Miss Tennessee Pageant was lo be Marsha (bird and final try at I he title, win or lose. She won, and now it's on to Atlantic City. AH IJ Hf5tMw Mill pJfSI Mil Mr iani A Talking. Cat? ft did, and I never could see them looking hack at me! 1 just decided they weren't really interested in me, and I didn't think there was any way I could win." Well, as all of Marsha's friends back home in Nashville and on the campus of Memphis State University know by now, the judges were indeed interested in Marsha. As a matter of fact, they were so interested that they chose the lovely, 21-year-old, green-eyed blonde as this year's Miss Tennessee and as this state's entry in the Miss America Pageant set Sept.

4-11 in Atlantic City. rpilE MISS TENNESSEE title was an especially re-! warding one for Marsha, who had scored a near-miss in last year's competition and then nearly missed this year's pageant altogether. "A month before the contest this year, I caught mono," she says, "and I was really worried. When I was real sick', 1 thought about telling them to go ahead and let the first alternate represent Memphis State, instead of me. If I had been a singer, it wouldn't have been as bad, but since I was going to dance ballet in the talent competition, I was in bad shape.

"A dancer needs a lot more energy than a singer, 4 Already performing her duties as the reigning Miss Tennessee, Marsha McDonald participates in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Rivergate Mall branch of First American Bank. That's bank chairman Andrew Benedict at Marsha's right and her rroud mother, Mrs. Mary McDonald, stand-in? behind her. I HAVE A VERY unusual cat. It TALKS! When I feed it on the back porch it lets me know when it's finished by putting its paws on the screen door and saying, "OUT, OUT, OUT!" Ms Rose Goodrich, Denver, Tenn.

1 One thing is certain Marsha will be on her toes in the Miss America Pageant, performing her talent act, ballet. inadequate Plumbing? Photos by Gerald Holly torn, ui. a 1 r- vmS last J3t But I could either have won or lost, and nothing worse could have happened. You're either Miss Tennessee, or you go home and be Marsha McDonald, you know, and either role is fine with me." OF COURSE, she left the pageant in Jackson with both roles hers. And she appears to wear the Miss Tennessee crown with both humility and grace.

"The whole irony of a beauty pageant like this one," she says, "is that the person who wins is not always the prettiest. This year is a good example, because I certainly wasn't the prettiest girl there. A lot of my friends are prettier than I am, for that matter. Many very beautiful girls don't even enter beauty contests, because they may never have cared Us develop a particular talent." At least one person had enough confidence in Marsha's combination of beauty and talent to capitalize at Marsha's expense-on her winning the Miss Tennessee title. That was her steady beau, Dan Woody of Memphis.

"We made a bet," impishly admits Marsha, despite her Church of Christ upbringing. "If I won the contest, I had to pay him $20, and if I lost, he had to pay me $10. He's been in Texas, on active reserve duty all summer, but he's already been home to collect his money. Oh yes, he definitely made me pay him!" Now they've got another wager going, for the Miss America Pageant, Marsha confides, and she is going to do everything she can do to try to lose that bet, too. REALLY QUITE exciting," she says of her J.

preparations for the trip to Atlantic City. "But it's also very demanding. There are so many things to be done public appearances to make, ballet rehearsal (with a Memphis ballet instructor), and, of course, selecting the wardrobe for the Miss America Pageant. I have to have three evening gowns, for example, and two swimsuits, and casual clothes for rehearsals and interviews." As is the custom, one of the evening gowns will be especially designed and made for Marsha in New York. and 1 wasn't even able to rehearse my dance until a week before the pageant.

And then, I couldn't dance much at all. I still don't feel that I danced my best in the pageant." She was looking her best, however. At a well-proportioned 5-foot-5, 115 pounds, and 34-22-34, she won a preliminary prize in swimsuit competition, a sign of bigger things to come. "Because I had been in the contest before (she was Miss Nashville in the 1969 and 1970 contests, before representing Memphis State in the 1971 pageant), I don't think I was as nervous this year," says Marsha. "But I did feel that I had a lot more pressure on me.

"When you have finished as first runner-up the year before, people expect you to do real well, and that's not always the case. For one thing, everything is so different the next year different judges, different competition. And then, too, the second and third alternates were to be back again this year, and you know you may have barely finished ahead of them the last time." BUT, NONETHELESS, on toes that were admittedly sore hurts a little bit to stand on my toes, because I haven't been practicing ballet regularly," she explains), Marsha danced and charmed her way right into the final round of competition. "The only thing I did any differently this time," she says, "is that I concentrated on the importance of the interviews. Before, when I'd go into an interview with the judges, I didn't think they were that important.

I talked, but I didn't try to express myself like I should have. This year, I tried to express myself a little more in detail, instead of giving so many 'yes' and 'no' answers." But, regardless of how she fared, Marsha had made up her mind that this was to be her last shot at the Miss Tennessee crown. "I just thought that three times would have been enough," she says. "Oh, 1 had enjoyed the two previous pageants and all that, but if I had lost again, I would just have felt that some things are not meant to be. 1 wanted to win.

I'm sure I would have been a little let down if I had finished lower than I did last year. WHFN MY SIX-YEAR OLD cousin's father I 2 2 tn to IXl I I ments during the next year, as Marsha fulfills her responsibilities as a beauty queen, "The thing most people don't realize about being Miss Tennessee is that it's a job, for all practical purposes, and a full-time job, at that," she says. "I'll have to drop out of school for a year, of course (she's a senior), and I'll have to support myself on tlie money I make from personal appearances." Miss Tennessee is paid as much as $100 for certain appearances, but, Marsha notes woefully, she must pay her own expenses, and one recent, trip cost her $73 of the $100 she made. "Since I don't sing," she says, "I'll be required lo do a lot more talking at appearances than the Miss Tennessees who were singers have done. As often as possible, I will perform, though." The talking won't be too difficult for Marsha.

A major in radio and television journalism at Memphis State, she hopes to enter that line of work in the future. "Right now," she says, "the thing I'm dreading is having to pay my income tax next year. I have to pay it on what I 'earn' as Miss Tennessee, and I have lo pay a lump sum, when I'm used to always having had it taken out of weekly paychecks when I've worked in the past." Which brings to mind an interesting question-just what does a Miss Tennessee list as her occupation, when she fills out that particular box in the Federal Income Tax form? "Just 'Miss I guess," says Marsha. I don't know what else you'd put." Unless, of course, she can land a as Miss America." "They take your hair coloring, jour skin coloring, your measurements, and your measurement from neck to floor," hhc says, "and then they send you sketches of the gown, plus a choice of colors. I had a choice between green and hot pink, and I picked hot pink." She will wear her hair up for the Miss America Pageant, just as she did in the Miss Tennessee competition.

"That's because I'm dancing ballet," she says. "The first year I was in the Miss Tennessee Pageant, 1 did tap dance for my talent, and I wore my hair down but it's best to wear it up in ballet. Of course. I could wear it down at the Miss America Pageant, when I'm not dancing, but I think it's best to keep it the same way all the time. There are so many girls there, that you need to do everything you can to make the ji'idgesjj-emember you from one day and one event to the next." A 1968 graduate of David Lipscomb High, Marsha is the daughter of Mrs.

Mary McDonald of Nashville (a widow), and she has an older, married sister, Mrs. Michael (Cecilia) O'Brien, also in Nashville. "Insofar as hobbies and activities go," says Marsha, "I like swimming and water-skiing. And I love to sleep. I like to sleep at least eight hours a night, and nine or 10 would be great.

And I like to take little naps in the afternoon. I think one of the reasons I have lost weight at college, instead of gaining it, is that, instead of eating breakfast, I sleep late every morning." A HOWEVER, SWIMMING and water-skiing and even sleep may have to take a back seat to commit- told him that his dog, Sparkie, was going to have pups he called the dog, turned her over and counted "2,4,6,8 and 10." With a worried look on his face he asked," What if she has more than 10? Won't she be minus a faucet?" Kafhy L. Myatt, Dickson, Tenn. Two dollars and a half will be paid for funny or unusual true stories printed in this column. When suRflesiions are duplicated, payment is made for the first received.

Contributions cannot be acknowledged or returned. Entries will not be accepted bv phone, only bv card or entriss to IT HAPPENED HEREABOUTS, THE NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN Magazine, 1 1 00 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. 3 9 Along with scholarship money and a couple of thousand dollars worth of wardrobe, the Miss Tennessee title provides Marsha with her own official car to use during the next year..