Although she did not win the sought-after Miss America crown Saturday, Miss North Carolina Arlie Honeycutt traveled back to the Tar Heel State with her head held high.
“Going into the broadcast, I had kind of an inner peace,” Honeycutt, 20, said Sunday by telephone as she and her family prepared to leave Las Vegas, where the 2013 Miss America finals were broadcast live on ABC Saturday night.
“I did not think it was going to happen for me, but it was really good just to stand up there with my sisters,” she continued.
Honeycutt, who won the state title after being named Miss Kinston-Lenoir County 2012, was one of 53 Miss America contestants who underwent more than a week of intense preliminary competitions ahead of Saturday’s finals.
The top 15, based on their preliminary scores, were selected live on television, and in a surprise twist, the judges named a 16th finalist. Honeycutt did not make the top 16, though.
The eventual winner crowned was Miss New York, Mallory Hagan. Honeycutt did walk away with an award, though. She shared the non-finalist talent award with several fellow contestants.
Honeycutt’s platform has been promoting volunteerism, and her talent has been singing. The Garner native is a voice performance major at East Carolina University, where she is a junior.
Each contestant was introduced in the beginning of Saturday’s broadcast and had the opportunity to give a humorous description of her home state or territory.
Honeycutt said she was from North Carolina, “the state where it’s illegal to sing off-key.”
Honeycutt said Sunday she was “really excited” to get back to North Carolina, where she will continue her reign through June, when the next Miss N.C. is crowned.
“I have a couple of days to decompress and not wear makeup or high heels, and then I’m going to get right back to it,” she said.
Honeycutt plans to return to the Kinston area. She was in town in late November for the crowning of Maggie Nelms, 23, and Makenzie Sasnett, 14, as the respective Miss Kinston-Lenoir County and Miss Kinston-Lenoir County’s Outstanding Teen for 2013.
Honeycutt is the first Miss Kinston-Lenoir County to be crowned Miss N.C. since Constance Dorn Rist was crowned in 1972. Rist, who currently lives in the Charlotte area, went on to be first-runner-up at Miss America.
Honeycutt said she had spent a great deal of time talking with Rist.
“There is such a sisterhood among Miss North Carolina, and Miss Kinston-Lenoir County,” Honeycutt said.
David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or David.Anderson@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.