OGDEN -- An Ogden woman named Mrs. America 1999 was crowned Mrs. World on Thursday.
Starla Stanley, 32, became only the second Mrs. America to take the international title when she won the pageant Thursday in Jerusalem."We're elated but all just very tired right now," David Marmel, the director of Mrs. American Productions, said by phone from Jerusalem.
Contestants were judged on poise, personality, communication skills, family values, education and background -- what Marmel called "the total lady."
But Stanley's Mrs. America reign has been clouded by a custody battle over two children from her first marriage.
Her ex-husband -- she remarried in 1996 -- claimed in court papers that she engaged in "severe violent physical and verbal interactions" with her current husband in front of their children.
And she has admitted she once bloodied the nose of her second husband, Scott Stanley, but has since undergone counseling.
Stanley has promoted family values in her pageant speeches but talks openly of her family strife. Her current husband and her parents were in attendance when she won Thursday's pageant.