Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Once not enough
Savannah Skidmore now Miss Arkansas USA.
Hollywood bombshell Mae West famously said: “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Northwest Arkansas’ own reigning beauty, Savannah Skidmore, didn’t buy that logic. Yes, she had worn the Miss Arkansas crown in 2016, and she loved every minute of it. But because she stepped into the state title when Savvy Shields was named Miss America, Skidmore had no opportunity to compete on the bigger stage.
All that changed on Nov. 18 when Skidmore, a first-year law student at the University of Arkansas, won the title of Miss Arkansas USA in a competition at the Fort Smith Convention Center.
“As I was standing backstage that final night [of the pageant], I had this moment where I was like, ‘Why am I doing this to myself again? Am I crazy?’,” she remembers with a laugh. “But I have always wanted to do the Miss USA system, and I knew I would never be quite content with myself if I let the opportunity pass.
“And I really wanted the chance to represent Arkansas on the national level.”
“We are very proud of her accomplishments and her drive to get where she wants to be and are very excited she gets to compete at Miss USA,” says her mom, Kim Skidmore. “She never ceases to amaze us.”
That being said, the new Miss Arkansas USA has some decisions to make. After winning the title, she signed her contract, had a professional photo shoot and went right back to school to take finals. Now, she’s considering whether she takes next semester off, knowing the Miss USA Pageant is usually in May — but the date isn’t announced until sometime in the spring.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she says of wearing the Miss Arkansas USA crown, “and I want to make the most of it and prepare for Miss USA to the best of my ability. I think it would be worth taking the time.”
Of course, it could turn into a longer sabbatical. Were she to win Miss USA, Skidmore would then have the opportunity to compete in the Miss Universe Pageant.
“It would be an absolute dream come true to win Miss USA,” she says, explaining she’d been watching a recording of the Miss Universe Pageant just before this interview. “Maybe I’m just overly emotional, but I get
tears in my eyes just watching these women I don’t know compete. I get emotional for them. I know how much of a dream it is. That’s what competing at Miss USA is for me.”
IZARD COUNTY GIRL
Growing up in the tiny Izard County town of Calico Rock, Skidmore was a tomboy who “always admired pageant girls,” not for their beauty as much as for being “goal oriented.” She was Pre-Teen Arkansas when she was 10, an experience she describes as “fascinating” for a small-town girl. She played basketball in high school — “Basketball was everything in Calico Rock and everything to me,” she says — and she successfully handled the transition to the University of Arkansas, where one class might
have more people in it than her hometown. Returning to pageants gave her “something to set goals for — a way I could make a difference and make a difference in me.”
In July 2016, Skidmore was first runner-up to Savvy Shields at the Miss Arkansas Pageant. On Sept. 11, 2016, she was watching with her Miss UA pageant director, Toni Lindsey, as Shields was crowned Miss America. On Sept. 12, she accepted the offer to step up to the title of Miss Arkansas. The job came with all the perks — the $25,000 in scholarship money, more than $75,000 in awards, wardrobe and gifts,
the apartment, the car and the task of traveling the state until she crowned her successor the next June at Robinson Auditorium in Little Rock.
“My year as Miss Arkansas will forever be one of the best years of my life,” Skidmore says. “I almost didn’t want the year to end. It was sad for me to give up my crown. And that probably prompted me a little bit to compete in Miss Arkansas USA. It’s not that I wanted to relive that year, but I loved the idea of living my life in a similar fashion again.”
“I think the best part for me was getting to watch her have her crowning moment,” says Lindsey
of the Miss Arkansas USA Pageant. “We had a ‘pretend’ crowning in my living room the night that Savvy won, but getting to watch her on stage in an evening gown, getting that recognition, having that moment? I was a blubbering mess. I’m just so proud for her!”
Lindsey says the Miss USA system has “always embraced former Miss America competitors. And USA does place an emphasis on community service, which is one of the four points of the Miss America crown — and that’s a big part of it for Savannah. She wants to make an impact on the community and the state and continue what she started as Miss Arkansas.”
But some things about the Miss USA system are different. Skidmore didn’t get an apartment or a car
along with her crown. On the other hand, she doesn’t have to live in Little Rock during her reign, and she has the freedom to book appearances herself instead of being committed to appearances chosen for her by the pageant system.
“I’m excited to be staying in Fayetteville for the year, and I want to make more appearances in Northwest Arkansas than I got to as Miss Arkansas,” she says.
GIVING, GETTING SUPPORT
Although Miss USA doesn’t have a talent category — and does still have a swimsuit competition, which Miss America has dropped — Skidmore will continue to pursue the same “platform issue” she had in the Miss America system. She calls it “Speak Up Now: Suicide Prevention and Awareness.” The idea came from a very difficult time for her family. When she was a freshman in college, her uncle committed
suicide. “Speak Up Now” aims to “educate people on the warning signs that someone may show when having life-ending thoughts and to break through the stigma surrounding suicide in order to reach those who are suffering,” she explains. She wants to use her time as Miss Arkansas USA to talk to young people about suicide, offer support to those affected by suicide and encourage those suffering or those who see someone suffering to speak up.
“We didn’t see it coming,” she says simply about the loss of her uncle. “I want people to see it coming. I want people to recognize the risk whenever someone’s behavior changes dramatically.
“Kids love the program I do,” she adds. “But they also remember the three points I want to make: Speak up for someone who is in a bad place — maybe you speak up to whoever is bullying them. Speak to them, asking
if they need help and telling them you’re there for them. And speak up to an adult if it’s too big a situation for you to handle as a kid.”
Skidmore knows she has all the support she needs over the next year, from her family, her boyfriend and mentors like Lindsey and Shannon Boy Skokos, a previous Miss Arkansas (1992) who went to law school, worked as an attorney and established a charitable foundation — all things Skidmore wants to do.
But she wants to be sure anyone who has followed her since she was Miss Arkansas knows one thing: “I’m going to take every advantage of being Miss Arkansas USA,” she says, “and put all of myself into this. I want to be the best I can be.”