Miss Missouri USA Reads to Babler Students

One common tradition during Rockwood Reading Week has been to allow students to wear their favorite hats in school, in conjunction with Dr. Seuss' popular red-and-white Cat in the Hat style. But it's not every day a special visitor reading to students during this educational commemoration wears a sparkling crown instead.

Katie Kearney, a 2007 graduate of , former Babler Bulldog and current Miss Missouri USA, visited several classes this Tuesday in .

Students asked Kearney about her pet (which is a male Pomeranian named Rocky); favorite color (pink); favorite sport (if playing is volleyball and if watching is hockey or Cardinal baseball); and her favorite quote (one about staying away from people who belittle your ambitions). She also likes snowboarding, and answered that PE was one of her favorite classes while she was their age. When a student asked her about her best friend, she said it was a woman named Haley, who also had gone to Babler Elementary and they were friends ever since.

One of the more interesting questions was about whether she was "popular" when she was a Babler Bulldog. Her answer was very thoughtful:  "As you get older, you start to realize the idea of popularity doesn't really exist. Like in college, people aren't looked at as popular or unpopular. Some people are good at some things; other people are good at other things. You eventually realize there's no reason to have boundaries related to popularity."

Kearney told students while growing up, she wanted to do all sorts of professions, including being a lawyer. "I was all over the place with my dreams. I think that's good. It makes people try all sorts of things. Teaching would be amazing, too," said the competitive cheerleader.

"She (Kearney) seems really nice, someone who likes to be a good person and to help her community," said Alannah Fitzmaurice, a Babler fifth grade student from Wildwood.

Fitzmaurice's teacher, Jennifer Sinn, said she believed it was helpful to students for Kearney to describe how she went from being a Babler student to where she is now in a national competition.

Michaelanne Wathen, a kindergarten teacher at the school, emphasized to students that while Kearney was beautiful, she also was smart and hard working—and very tall at 5 feet 10 inches.

Kearney brought two books to read to kindergarten classes:  Henry & the Buccanteer Bunnies and The Crown On Your Head, a book about why everyone is special.

Because the students asked about the Miss USA program, Kearney outlined the four major components to be:  the interview, evening gown, swim suit judging and an onstage, individual question for the top four or five finalists. She said she was going to Kansas City this weekend to select her gown.

A check of the 2012 pageant results revealed Kearney also had won the Congeniality Award. Previously, she earned the title of Miss St. Louis USA.

Kearney, 23, is an honors' student and senior at Saint Louis University who is studying communications. She said she wants to go into broadcast journalism. She will compete in the Miss USA pageant on June 3 in Las Vegas, NV.

She said the Miss USA pageant would be televised on NBC, including some of her home videos. Fans will be able to vote for her online, and Eureka-Wildwood Patch will do another article closer to that time.