Ashley Hobbs Crowned
1st Miss Teen Oklahoma

The evening of June 3, 2003, was a historical one for the entire state of Oklahoma as it named its first ever Miss Teen Oklahoma. Broken Arrow’s Ashley Jo Hobbs, 16, captured the title of Miss Teen Oklahoma 2003 as well as thousands of dollars in scholarships and prizes. Hobbs performed a musical theatre jazz dance to “Hit Me With a Hot Note”, which won a preliminary talent award. She also received the Overall Interview Award. Currently the president of Teens against Crime for the Tulsa area and a volunteer at the Broken Arrow Police Department, Hobbs will be a junior at Broken Arrow Senior High School in the fall. Her dance training comes from the Tulsa Youth Ballet and director Laura Norman Tyson. Oklahoma City University, known for its winning pageant tradition, sponsored Hobbs in the state-wide pageant as she won the title of Miss Teen OCU in October 2002. Parents Bill and Jo Hobbs and grandparents Lyndsey and Peggy Barclay are very proud of Ashley’s accomplishments.

The pageant was held at the Walter Performing Art Center at Holland Hall School in Tulsa on June 2-3. Monday consisted of each contestant’s personal interview and group rehearsals while Tuesday saw the contestants participate in morning and afternoon preliminary competitions and a Top 10 Final competition in the evening. Twenty six contestants from all over the state entered the pageant in hopes of winning part of the over $8000 in scholarships given. Each contestant won a minimum of $125 in scholarship. Awards given were: Preliminary Physical Fitness in Swimsuit awards to Caitlin Graham, Becca Hester, and Jana Wingo; Preliminary Talent awards to Kendra Baggett and Ashley Hobbs, Non-Finalist Talent Awards to Megan Alspach, Hailey Hansard, Simone Mullinax, and Kelly Ryan; and Crowd Pleaser awards to Lindsey Williams and Tiffany Tolbert. Top 10 Finalists were Kim Hurt, Amy Jackson, Rachel Paxton, Jana Wingo, and Catie Wilson; the Miss Teen Oklahoma Runners-up were Caitlin Graham, 4th Runner-up; Becca Hester, 3rd Runner-up; Kendra Baggett, 2nd Runner-up; and Tiffany Tolbert, 1st Runner-up.

The scoring for the pageant is similar to the Miss America system with 40% derived from interview, 30% from talent, and 10% each from swimsuit, evening gown, and on-stage question. The Miss Teen Oklahoma Scholarship Pageant stands out among other teen pageants because it is the only one endorsed by and affiliated with the Miss Oklahoma pageant.