The Dallas County Junior Miss scholarship competition completed its 27th consecutive program on Saturday night, with Morgan Academy senior Moggie Bolton being declared the winner. Bolton, the daughter of Kaye and Tom Bolton, won three of the four divisions of competition, taking top honors in the fitness, scholastic, and talent segments and placing second in poise.

For her talent, Bolton performed a tap dance to Benny Goodman’s &uot;Sing, Sing, Sing.&uot; In the poise portion of the competition, she spoke on voter participation.

Bolton plans to attend the University of Virginia and hopes to be a political analyst.

The win is extraordinarily special to the Bolton family because Moggie is the second Bolton daughter to be selected as Dallas County’s Junior Miss. Merrill, her older sister, won the pageant in 2000.

The Junior Miss program is a scholarship competition put on by the Civitan Club of Dallas County each year. It is open to senior girls from the county, and they compete in the various aspects of the program for scholarship money and the title of Dallas County’s Junior Miss.

Dallas County’s Junior Miss program offers its winners some of the best local scholarship money in the country. Winners of the individual categories of poise, fitness, and talent receive $300, while runners-up win $200. For the scholastic category, the winner gets $400 and the runner-up receives $300.

This year’s first runner up was Mary Coleman Bostick of Morgan Academy, who was the second place finisher in fitness and talent as well. Bostick also took the top honors in poise.

Lauren McNeill, also of Morgan Academy, was the second-place finisher in the scholastics category.

In miscellaneous categories of competition, Rusti Smith of Dallas County High School was given the Spirit of Junior Miss award. Mary Margaret Sampson, of Morgan Academy, won the Good Citizenship Award, while Casey Duck, also a Morgan student, won the &uot;Be Your Best Self&uot; Essay Contest.

As the 2003 Junior Miss, Bolton will now advance to the state finals, which are scheduled for this January in Montgomery. There, she will compete with approximately 60 other girls for the chance to go to the national competition in Mobile.

So, what are Bolton’s plans to get ready for state?