By Alaina Denean Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal

Clarissa King had wanted to be on Wheel of Fortune for a long time, and in January 2014 she decided to submit a video of her explaining why she would make a good contestant for the long running television game show.

She was invited to audition and was selected to be on the show in October 2015, but she was unable to make it due to school. But, she said she was happy when they called earlier this year to invite her to participate in an August taping that was aired Oct. 17.

“On my audition video, I told them that I was from a small town, Selma, and I told them that we would like to see some of our people on TV, because that’s rare,” King said. “I wanted to show a lot of personality in the video, and I wanted it to be something that would catch their eye.”

King said she has been watching Wheel of Fortune as long as she can remember, and picked up on the game from her parents and grandparents.

“I watch the show almost every day when I’m off. My grandparents and my mother, they watch it every day,” King said. “I think it was exciting [for them]. My mom was calling everybody before the show came on.”

King said her family had a good time watching her on TV.

“They were excited and they were waiting for me. I heard that some of them were yelling at the TV,” she said.

King said she enjoyed being on the show and was happy to be able to represent Selma and Dallas County.

“I had fun. It was nice. I enjoyed it a lot,” King said. “I was very happy [to represent Selma]. I knew it would draw attention because people from Selma don’t really get on TV like that, so I wanted to represent the city well.”

King won the final round of Wheel and took home a total of $6,000.