Trip to Miss America pageant to be ripe with meaning for Pearland woman

By Don Maines Updated 3:08 pm, Monday, August 28, 2017

Sheila Milner, right, celebrates  being named to Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant's Hall of Honor. With her is  Margana Wood, who won the Miss Texas title. Photo: Courtesy

Sheila Milner has waited 25 years to walk the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey during the annual Miss America pageant.
The longtime Pearland resident gets her wish soon, traveling to the Jersey shore to cheer on a Houstonian, Margana Wood, as Miss Texas in the granddaddy of all beauty competitions.
Miss America will be broadcast live at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10 on ABC-TV.
"Sheila got Margana into pageants, and she has been fabulous with Margana," said Wood's mother, Cindy Solliday Veltman Wood of Houston.
Milner, 49, is celebrating her 10th year as the executive director of the Miss Houston/Harris County/Sugarland Pageant. Its winners advance to the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant, where the Lone Star State's representative to Miss America is chosen.
At this year's state contest, which Wood won in July, its master of ceremonies announced that Milner was voted into the pageant's Hall of Honor.
"I was baffled," said Milner. "You know how it is when you suddenly hear your name. I was like, 'What?'"
Thunderous applause greeted the announcement, said Jan Mitchell, the executive director of the Miss Texas Organization.
Mitchell said that, since 1983, a state committee has selected honorees "who have played a major role in the pageant."
"There may or may not be inductees each year," Mitchell said.
Milner, who operates a dance studio, DanceZone, in Stafford, competed in the 1992 Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant as Miss Bexar County and won a special judges' award scholarship for her talent presentation. That accolade stoked her desire to compete two more years in pursuit of the Miss America crown.
But when the national office suddenly dropped the age limit for contestants from 26 to 24, Milner was no longer eligible to pursue her dream of being crowned Miss Texas and Miss America.
"So much for that," said Milner. "But I really enjoyed being in the system. You learn so much about yourself and others as well."
Directing the Miss Houston pageant, as well as helping groom winners representing other cities in the Bay Area, Milner has recruited a number of local residents to help her each year. For example, Milner's sister, Jennifer Quarterman, a speech pathologist in Pearland Independent School District, often coaches contestants for the pageant's interview competition.
In 2014, their mother, the late Bettie Louis of Pearland, was honored by the Miss Texas Organization along with a former Miss America as a Texas "women of achievement."
Louis was recognized as a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, where she was a mental health officer who specialized in post-traumatic stress disorder.
Margana Wood was a student at Pin Oak Middle School in Bellaire when she met Milner, who was coaching the dance team.
Wood won the title of Miss Texas' Outstanding Teen 2012, but following her reign, the 2013 Lamar High School graduate refrained from competing in pageants until her junior year at the University of Texas.
In 2016, under Milner's direction, Wood advanced to the state pageant as Miss Houston, placing as first runner-up and winning almost $10,000 toward her senior year in college.
Wood returned this year as Miss Travis County to win the big kahuna.
Fans can help Miss Texas secure a spot in the Top 15 at Miss America, by casting votes via Facebook at www.missamerica.org/vote. Voting ends on Sept. 5.

http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/pearland/news/article/Trip-to-Miss-America-pageant-to-be-ripe-with-12071682.php