Mrs., Miss New:'Jersey were classnlates in Catholic high school TRENTON, N.J. (CNS)- The statisticians would have a field day calculating the probabilities, but it's true: Both the current Miss New Jersey and Mrs. New Jersey not only went to the same Catholic high school. but at the same time. Although they didn't know each other well at St. Rose High School, Belmar, N.J., they got acquainted by participating in school plays, said Mrs. New Jersey, 26-year-old Dorianne Hennessy. Miss New Jersey, Michele Sexton, graduated in 1987 from St. Rose, while Mrs. Hennessy was a 1984 grad uate. M iss Sexton will compete in the Miss America pageant Sept. 18 in Atlantic City, N.J. In herfirst three months as Mrs. New Jersey, Mrs. Hennessy made more than 45 appearances for charity benefits, including a fund raiser for Catholic Charities of Hunterdon County, N.J. "My Catholic background taught me to give to others without expect-
ing any return," said Mrs. Hennessy, a member of St. Thomas More parish, Convent Station, N.J. ''I'll do as many charitable appearances as possible." Her husband, Sean, is a cantor at St. Thomas More and his aunt is a rectory assistant there. Mrs. Hennessy once taught at Msgr. Donovan High School. Toms River, N.J. Miss Sexton said herfamily was very important during her Miss New Jersey competition. "Family teamwork made winning the title possible," she told the Monitor, Trenton's diocesan newspaper. "I could not have done it without my family." A student at the Manhattan School of Music, Miss Sexton started a chapter of the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Oisorders there. "I had an eating disorder, but I was able to overcome it," she said. "I started the chapter to help others discuss and overcome the me-
dia's idea of what constitutes attractiveness." The media promote a false image of beauty to the public, Miss Sexton said. Physical fitness and good health are more important, she added. "Attractiveness is not anyone particular body type," she said. "It's about a healthy body. I feel 'attractiveness is each individual's personal best within their body type, whether it's petite or tall or average." M iss Sexton said her religion and her Catholic education have sustained her through the stressful and nerve-wracking conditions of the competitions. "I always grounded myself in spirituality, which I learned from my Catholic education," she said. "It's often stressful and lonely backstage. I'm glad I know that God is always looking out for me." While the Miss America pageant is a scholarship pageant, with physical fitness in a bathing suit
CNS photo
DORIANNE HENNESSY accounting for 15 percent of the score, the Mrs. USA pageant awards only gifts and has no bathing suit judging. Mrs. USA is open to married contestants ages 26-56. "The contest stresses the family and physical fitness, not beauty," Mrs. Hennessy said. "I entered the Mrs.
CNS photo
MICHELE SEXTON New Jersey contest because I want to promote marriage and family values," she said. . Mrs. Hennessy finished out of the money in this year's Mrs. USA pageant. "Last year's Mrs. USA had 10 children," she said. "If that's not family values, I don't know what is."
Catholic former Miss America likes life as wife, mother WASHINGTON (CNS) - Kaye Lani Rae Rafko-Wilson, Miss America 1988. would rather be known just as Mrs. Rafko-Wilson 1993. "Miss America was a fun year," she said of her reign. "It opened the door to a lot of things." Now, though, "all my free time is spent with my husband and my baby." Chuck and 15-month-old Nicholas, said Mrs. Rafko-Wilson, a Catholic and the first registered nurse to become M iss America.
Not that she has bundles of free .time. Mrs. Rafko-Wilson helped open Hospice of Monroe. named for its location in her Michigan hometown, takes care of its public relations and visits patients when she can. She is to be featured in an NBC special. "Miss America: Their Untold Stories,"airing Sept. 18,89 p.m. EDT. The show looks at 14 former Miss Americas and their lives then and now. Life then was a nonstop whirl,
Mrs. Rafko- Wilson said in a telephone interview from her home in Petersburg, M icll .. where she now lives. "It was a big adjustment, a big change. It was something I didn't prepare for," she said. "Right away, they put you on a pedestal, everywhere you go," she said. 'Y ou're recognized everywhere you go, even by kids 4 years of age." In Monroe, 20,000 people from the town. population 23.000, turned out for a recent parade in which hers was the only vehiclc. At the parade, the city's auto dealers presented her with a check for $10,000 to help hcr start Hospice of Monroe. The hospice serves 15-20 patients at any given time. '" visit patients if they req uest it, and I go to a lot of funerals, as you can imagine," she said. Her faith plays a big part in her hospice work. Noting the activities of self-styled "suicide doctor" Jack Kevorkian, Mrs. Rafko-Wilson said, "It's a perfect opportunity for me to be able to share my views of what hospice is." Hospice, she added, "provides a quality of life in being able to die with dignity. There's nothing dignified in ending your life" in the
way Kevorkian advocates, she said. "God is more powerful" than the devil, Mrs. Rafko- Wilson said, but "he allows things to happen" because "we only realize the importance of loving and caring for one another in times of grief and tragedy, like the flood and the hurricane .... This is the time we have to do the most and the best we can for others." Thanks to the Miss America title, 'she continues to get a lot of speaking engagements, primarily on nursing, hospice and Miss America, from all sorts of groups, although ''I'm getting tired of fighting with the airports and the airlines and the schedule juggling," she said. Mrs. Rafko- Wilson is also an honorary committee member of the Catholic Campaign for America, appearing at fundrais'ing dinners in Philadelphia and Detroit. In the meantime, she's studying to take placement tests in pursuit of her master's degree in nursing. Which brings her around to where it all began for her. "The reason I competed [in Miss Americal was I needed money for scholarships," she said.
"I still have 25,000 bucks left to finish 'up my master's." N ow a member of SI. Alphonsus parish in Deerfield, Mich., Mrs. Rafko-Wilson said she's helped out there on special occasions but hasn't done much on a year-round basis because the pace set during her Miss America reign "hasn't stopped at all." A few things, though, are different. "I've changed my look," Mrs. Rafko-Wilson said. She noted how a Kaye Larii Rae Rafko fan was effusive in his apologies when he didn't recognize the former pageant queen. And Mrs. Rafko-Wilson recently turned 30. She remembers thinking in high school that by age 30 she'd have her master's in nursing and be married with two children and working on a third. But her husband, she said, told her to look at the other side of the coin: "In high school you never said you wanted to travel the world as Miss America." On her birthday, Mrs. RafkoWilson said, "I spent three-and-ahalf hours at the beauty salon. 1 felt like I was M iss America again!"
OUR LADY'S RELIGIOUS STORE Mon.." Sat. 10.'00 " 5:30 P.M.
GIFTS CARDS
BOOKS 673-4262
FOR INFORMATION 0 ADVERTISING BAZAARS, SUPPERS, & OTHER PARISH DELIGHTS
936 So. Main St..
Fall River
AWIDE CHOICE OF SAVINGS &INVESTMENT PLANS
CALL -675-7151 . This Message Sponsored by the Following Business Concerns in the Diocese of Fall River FALL RIVER TRAVEL DURO FINISHING CORP. GILBERT C. OLIVEIRA INS. AGENCY GLOBE MFG. CO.
•
NBIS BanJdnl1 Since 18Z5
MEMBER FDIC/DIFM EQUAL HOUSING
e
LENDER
CNS photo
KAYE LAN I RA YE RAFKO-WILSON