Miss America 2000 speaks with veterans, shares pageant tips, shows off dresses in Sedalia visit

Shattering the stereotype that pageant winners are just supposed to look pretty in a dress, 2000 Miss America Heather French Henry got a lot accomplished on Saturday in Sedalia. And, yeah, she still looked good doing it.

Henry, a small-town Kentucky gal who now lives in Louisville, spoke about veterans’ affairs in the morning at the VFW, then went over to Formal Affairs to discuss her other passions: Fashion, pageants and all the skills that can be garnered from participating in pageants.

“This is actually is my very first opportunity to come into one town and do both types of activities — the veterans event and the evening wear event,” Henry, 36, told the Democrat after her one-hour workshop at Formal Affairs. “But it’s perfect for me. When I started designing again, I thought I could combine both of my loves even though they are seemingly different.”

And combine them she did: Several veterans tried on her Miss America crown at the VFW, and at least one Formal Affairs visitor discussed veterans issues with Henry.

About a dozen girls and women listened to Henry speak about pageant skills and strategies. Not all of them were pageant competitors; some were cheerleaders and some were FFA members. As Henry likes to say, pageant skills are really life skills.

“Whether you’re involved in pageants or any kind of extracurricular activity, any time you’re presenting yourself to other people, I think posture, speaking ability, eye contact, all of those things are important,” said Henry, who is the only Miss America from Kentucky (and the only one with short brown hair, one of the Formal Affairs audience members said). “About 75 percent of what people think of you is determined before you open your mouth. A lot of it is in body language, posture — even shaking hands.

“A lot of teenagers have no idea how to shake hands and say hello. I try to teach that to my children, who are 8 and 10, and it’s very important they learn that about business. Because it’s not just pageants, it’s basic life skills. A lot of people associate pageants with skills girls will never use, and I could not beg to differ more. I think all of those public speaking skills are gained through the Miss America system, and I use them every day.”

Along with the pageant tips, Henry also did a trunk show where she showed dresses from her evening wear line; designs from the collection have been worn by Miss Ohio 2012 and other pageant winners. Two young ladies from the audience tried on a couple of the dresses; as Henry noted, it’s hard to appreciate a dress on a hanger.

“Actually, my specialty is more toward tailoring,” said Henry, a University of Cincinnati graduate. “I just got back into fashion design in 2007 after my husband (Steve, the former lieutenant governor of Kentucky) and I exited the political scene. And evening wear is a natural segue for me, having been Miss America.

“I would love in the future to cross over into ready-to-wear. I’ve been asked by contestants to do interview dresses and suits. Who knows, I may start that tomorrow.”

Regardless of what she does next, Henry will always be best known as Miss America. She has no complaints about that.

“It never gets old,” she told the Formal Affairs audience, very few of whom were star-struck, thanks to the Kentuckian’s down-home approachability. “No matter how many toilets I plunge in my house.”