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Brandon Shields, Jackson Sun Published 7:01 p.m. CT May 10, 2019 | Updated 12:03 p.m. CT May 11, 2019
The Miss Tennessee Scholarship Pageant is leaving Jackson and heading to Knoxville. Ayrika L Whitney, The Tennessean
"In retrospect, this entire experience showed me that I did not and still do not agree with MAO’s management of its personnel and its program."
With a little more than a month remaining in her reign as Miss Tennessee, Christine Williamson posted a letter on her personal Facebook page she sent to the Miss America Organization Friday afternoon she will no longer use the title of “Miss Tennessee,” effective immediately.
The entire letter is posted below:
TO: The Miss America Organization (“MAO”)
DATE: May 10,2019
I am dispirited to have to inform you and the public that I have decided tocease using the “Miss Tennessee 2018” title and name that I worked so hard to earn, effective immediately.
Despite considerable time, effort and money to a) successfully compete for my state title, and b) subsequently prepare for and compete in MAO’s national pageant competition in Atlantic City, I have concluded that circumstances beyond my control have conspired to adversely impact my treatment as a state titleholder from a state whose State Organization was terminated by MAO in September 2018. From my perspective, titleholders and contestants alike were hurt in, among other things, how MAO handled its 1) disputes with multiple State Organizations, and 2) ill-conceived and clumsily communicated transition to new State Organizations. Being subjected to that experience showed me MAO’s blatant disregard, if not outright contempt, for my dedication and efforts to earn my title and complete my year of service.
From my perspective, MAO and its leadership, working with its newly selected State Organization(s), deprived me of the full breadth and scope of the year of service I was promised and entitled to expect. For example, I lost the support of the State Organization that nurtured and supported me for the last six (6) years that I have been involved in the MAO program. I watched with dismay MAO’s cavalier treatment of the volunteers and leaders that have given years, and even decades, of their lives to supporting my state’s former State Organization and the MAO program.
For the record, I have and will always cherish my relationships with these former State Organization volunteers and leaders. For MAO to suggest as it did that I “refrain from any further contact or association” with such people is more than presumptuous, but rather was inappropriately dismissive of the personal relationships I had made for myself. The first formal communication from MAO after terminating my state’s State Organization – made more than three months after – showed me how little respect or consideration MAO and its leadership had for me and other titleholders and contestants like me.
In retrospect, this entire experience showed me that I did not and still do not agree with MAO’s management of its personnel and its program. I have made the difficult decision not to continue my support of the MAO program and to instead pursue exciting new opportunities with another program led and supported by people and volunteers I love and respect. The honor, commitment and loyalty that they have shown to me are values I want to reflect and reciprocate as my legacy.
Sincerely,
Christine Electra Williamson
Williamson's announcement is the latest episode in the drama that started nearly a year ago when MAO's leadership announced major changes to the competition's format that sparked a battle between state organizations and the national organization and a changing of the guard for Miss Tennessee leadership in MAO.
While Williamson’s letter did not call out the new leadership for Miss Tennessee, the pageant’s director, Joe Albright, said the letter caught the leadership group by surprise.
“We were really surprised and disappointed that she made this decision, because we felt we did our best to reach out to her and give her the support that she apparently felt like she wasn’t getting,” Albright said. “It is unfortunate that we were not able to reach out to Miss Williamson during the time period between the license revocation from the previous leadership group and the awarding of the license to our team.”
Williamson’s announcement comes 50 days before Miss Tennessee will be crowned at Thompson-Boling Arena on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
“We were in discussion with her lawyer for her to fulfil her role as reigning queen to hand the crown off to the next winner,” Albright said. “So the timing doesn’t leave us with a lot of time to decide what to do in her absence, but we’ve hopefully got time to figure out our options and fill that role.”
Miss Tennessee 2018 Christine Williamson sings The National Anthem at the 82nd annual West Tennessee Strawberry Festival Governor's Luncheon, Friday, May 10, 2019 in Humboldt. (Photo: KENNETH CUMMINGS/The Jackson Sun)
The established leadership has announced they will continue with their own pageant, Miss Tennessee Volunteer, in Jackson with the winner crowned on June 22, while the new Miss Tennessee organization will crown its winner a week later on June 29.
Reigning Miss Tennessee Christine Williamson waves to the crowd during the West Tennessee Strawberry Festival Parade on Friday on Main Street in Humboldt. (Photo: BRANDON SHIELDS/The Jackson Sun)
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