Mary Fran Healey, a rising senior at Wetumpka High School, was named Elmore County’s Distinguished Young Woman Saturday night in the competition at the Elmore County High School auditorium.
Healey was chosen from among 17 talented Elmore County seniors-to-be and received $1,600 in scholarship money for gaining the title. The daughter of Trip and Rebecca Healey and Kelly and Ryan Yaun, Healey won $700 in additional scholarship money for winning the “Be Your Best Self” Essay Award and top honors in the interview and self-expression categories.
In the self-expression portion of the competition, each of the contestants was asked what they considered their biggest luxury. Healey’s answer centered on time.
“Quality time is a luxury,” Healey said. “Everyone has time, but we spend so much time on our phones and social media. … Kids will grow up and people will pass away and we will forget to enjoy the luxury of spending quality time with those that we love.”
As winner of Elmore County’s Distinguished Young Women, Healey will advance to the state competition at Montgomery’s Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church to be held Jan. 18-19.
The first and second runners-up in Saturday night’s competition were Emma Grace Coyle of Tallassee High School and Jaala Hall of Elmore County High School, respectively.
Coyle, the daughter of Rebecca and John Coyle, won a $750 scholarship for winning first runner-up and $800 additional scholarship money for winning the scholastics, talent and fitness categories. Her talent was a dance to Bebe Rexha’s “I Got You” that featured a fusion of dance with gymnastics.
Hall, the daughter of Matt and Starr Hall, won a $650 scholarship for second runner-up and $500 additional scholarship money for winning the interview and talent portions of the competition. Hall’s talent was a contemporary dance performed to”Rise.”
Other category winners included Mallory Nichols of Tallassee High School, who won a $300 scholarship in the scholastic category; Anna Shineflew of Wetumpka High School, who won a $250 scholarship in the fitness category; Camden Zackery of Wetumpka High School, who won a $250 scholarship in the self-expression category; and Mary Kate Lackey of Tallassee High School, who won a $250 scholarship for the Roberta Pilcher Spirit Award.
The competition was emceed by Melanie Reese Taunton and Karen Teel, both former Elmore County DYW winners.
Other participants in the program were Victoria Angus, Cailee Ingram, Cameron Perdue, Klaudia Rose, Ellen Anne Singleton and Hannah Vawter of Wetumpka High School, Paige Blankenship and Victoria Miller of Holtville High School and Grace Coker of Tallassee High School.
The Distinguished Young Women, formerly America’s Junior Miss, was founded in 1958 as a way to reward the accomplishments of high school senior girls seeking to pursue higher education. Notable alumnae of the organization include newswoman Diane Sawyer, who was America’s Junior Miss 1963, newswoman Deborah Norville, who was Georgia’s Junior Miss in 1978 and actress Debra Messing, who was Rhode Island’s Junior Miss in 1986.
