MOBILE, Ala. — Utah's Jesika Henderson became America's Junior Miss Wednesday night, winning a $50,000 scholarship she can use to study physical therapy.
Henderson, 18, St. George, plans to attend Brigham Young University. Earlier she won $10,000 in the fitness overall category and $1,000 in the spirit category during the preliminaries. She beat out seven other finalists in the competition televised on TNN.
In the creative and performing arts category, Henderson performed a modern dance called "Stradivarius."
"I think Jesika is really representative of the wholesome, down-to-earth, values-oriented lifestyle a lot of Utah women have," said Elayne Wells Harmer, one of the co-directors of Utah's Junior Miss.
"She has a great family and is the oldest of six kids," Harmer said. "She's a very gifted dancer, extremely articulate and smart. She's the kind of girl you'd want dating your older brother."
Harmer said this is the second time a Utah woman has won the national scholarship event.
In 1994, Amy Osmond, the niece of Donny and Marie Osmond, grabbed top honors.
Henderson, too, has a famous relative. Her uncle is Kurt Bestor, a celebrated composer.
Harmer said Henderson is due to arrive in Utah Thursday night for a brief stay.
She said a welcome home party is planned at the airport, but she is not sure when Henderson's flight will arrive.
First runner-up was Katie Boyd of Alabama and second runner-up was Allison Lauber of Wisconsin.
Other finalists were Julie Blume of New Hampshire, Kristy Irons of Mississippi, Sarah Wroth of Maryland, Laura Buzhardt of South Carolina and Adrienne Embery of Arizona.
On Monday 16 girls garnered a total of $43,000 in academic funding in the preliminary round of the competition. They competed in the categories of spirit, fitness, poise, talent and scholastics.
The finalists were selected based on their scores through the preliminaries and judges' interview.
Scholarship money was donated by Birmingham-based HealthSouth Corp., Unilever HPC USA and the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
All contestants were high school graduates who won state Junior Miss pageants to advance to the finals in Mobile.
Contributing: Deseret News staff writer Amy Joi Bryson.