Pageant delayed by rain

PEA RIDGE — Halee Bowman, last year’s Jr. Miss Pea Ridge, was crowned Miss Pea Ridge 2012 Friday night after the pageant and fair were delayed by rain and strong winds.

She was crowned by Miss Pea Ridge 2011 Morganne Rhine.

The stage was set and the four contestants for Miss Pea Ridge had been interviewed by the judges and were preparing for the sportswear portion of the pageant when black storm clouds covered the sky, strong winds blew over vendors’ tents and items on the stage were blown over. Lightningstruck the ground on Greer Street just a couple of miles east of the fair grounds.

The safe room was opened andmany people took cover there as rain pelted the ground.

Shortly before 8 p.m., the pageant resumed.

“We’re pleased,” Karen Kitterman, chairman of Beta Alpha, said. The sorority sponsors the fair. She said everything wentvery smoothly and she expects to hear from the carnival management soon as to whether they will return next year.