UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY Utah Valley University Library George Sutherland Archives & Special Collections Oral History Program

Utah Women’s Walk Oral Histories Directed by Michele Welch

Interview with Jaclyn Hunt Herrin by Jessica LeClaire Hudgins October 2, 2010

Utah Women’s Walk TRANSCRIPTION COVER SHEET Interviewee: Jaclyn Hunt Herrin Interviewer: Jessica LeClaire Hudgins Place of Interview: Jaclyn Herrin’s parents’ home Lehi, Utah 84043 Date of Interview: 2 October 2010 Recordist: Jessica Hudgins Recording Equipment: Zoom Recorder H4n Panasonic HD Video Camera AG-HM C709 Transcription Equipment: Express Scribe Transcribed by: Jessica Hudgins Audio Transcription Edit: Lisa McMullin Reference: JA = Jaclyn Hunt Herrin (Interviewee) JE = Jessica LeClaire Hudgins (Interviewer) Brief Description of Contents: Jaclyn Hunt Herrin tells about her life growing up in Lehi, Utah, where she only had sight out of her left eye. Jaclyn is the daughter of Randy Paul and Lisa Hunt. Jaclyn had various eye surgeries growing up and to this day has a major eye surgery every five years. Jaclyn began her piano studies at age four with Dr. David Glen Hatch. She enjoys playing the piano today and teaching her own students. At the age of twenty Jaclyn became the 54th Miss Utah, and the only Miss Utah to this day with a physical disability. Jaclyn became one of the most popular Miss Utah's in its pageant history with her compelling story and her drive for community service with her personal platform Share Your Life, Share Your Decision: Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation. Jaclyn humbly tells about the prestigious awards she won from her services in her community outreach and wants everyone to know you can always sign up as a donor at www.YesUtah.org. Jaclyn won the Quality of Life Award three times, twice at Miss Utah and at Miss America. During Jaclyn's pageants she challenged her limits to capture the titles of Miss Lehi 1999-2000, Miss Utah County 2000-2001, Miss Utah 2001-2002, and placing as a semi-finalist at Miss America 2001. Jaclyn also recalls on being Miss Utah and at Miss America when September 11th occurred and serving at the 2002 Utah Winter Olympic Games. Jaclyn became the recipient of $39,500 in scholarships to fund her education at Brigham Young University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English editing. Today Jaclyn is the mother of Clairessa(??) Herrin (age 5) and Kyle Herrin (3 age) and the wife to Taylor Herrin of 8 years on December 21, 2010.

NOTE: Interjections during pauses or transitions in dialogue such as uh and false starts and starts and stops in conversations are not included in this transcript. Changes by interviewee are incorporated in text. All additions to transcript are noted with brackets. Clarifications and additional information are footnoted. Audio Transcription [00:00] Beginning of interview JE: This is Jessica Hudgins, and I am interviewing Jaclyn Hunt Herrin at her parents’ house in Lehi, Utah. It’s about 5:15 p.m. It is Saturday, October 2, 2010. We’re just going to talk about the life of Jaclyn Hunt and her contributions to Utah. JE: Okay, Jaclyn, first question, just want to know when and where were you born? JA: I was born, that’s a good question, (laughs) in Provo on April 30, 1981. JE: And so where did you grow up? JA: I grew up in Lehi, [Utah]. I lived in the same house my whole life and never moved until I got married. JE: Can you tell me about your parents and your brothers and sisters and where you fit into your house? JA: Okay, my parents also lived in Lehi their whole lives. They met each other at church just like people do. (laughs) And from the time they were like two years old, they had known each other. It was a small town. I have one older brother and two younger brother and sister who are twins; they’re three years younger than I am. JE: How has your vision impairment impacted your and your family’s lives? JA: I think it’s been a financial impact. Originally, it was very hard for my parents to all of a sudden have a baby who had to have doctor’s appointments every other week and surgeries twice a year, and so from the beginning it’s been financially hard. It still is financially hard for my husband and I to pay for all of the problems. But on the reverse side, I think that a lot of the life experiences that I’ve had could of made me quite a shallow person, and I think of nothing else, it’s has grounded me and helped me to become more empathetic and understanding of others and the weaknesses that they might have. So in that sense I’m pretty grateful that I have that grounding point in my life. JE: How did your family find out about your vision impairment? JA: When I was two weeks old, my mom mentioned to the doctor that she didn’t think my eye was as clear as it ought to be. They didn’t check the cataract; they did check for it; they just didn’t see it. And so when I was two weeks old, they had it removed, the lens of my eye removed.

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JE: Besides your eye problems, you are also very talented in the piano. Can you tell me when you started playing the piano? JA: We think I was probably about four; my older brother started when he was in kindergarten, and I wasn’t about to let anyone outshine me. (laughs) So I started playing before I started kindergarten, and I had to quit my lessons when I got married because they were too expensive—until I was twenty-one years old; I was quite the dedicated student, I think. JE: Was it ever hard seeing the notes and the keys in playing the piano? JA: No, kind of the best part was I always had to have my right hand perfect and memorized because I couldn’t rely on sight to find it. So I find that I second guess my left hand a lot more because I can see it and think, Oh I think it’s A, but my right hand just does what it does, and I never have to think about it. JE: Well, at your piano teacher’s house they had a certain picture hanging up there, can you tell me what picture that was? JA: Yeah, when I was probably in fifth and sixth grade, my piano teacher had a picture, and she was Miss Lehi. She had big blue sequined puffy sleeves, and it just seemed to be the most lovely thing. And I had been to the pageant before and seeing that reinforced me and made me think I needed to be the person with my picture on that program, not necessarily to be famous, just to become someone worthy of having their picture on the program. JE: Well, you also met Miss Utah 1999 Vanessa Ballam, and she helped you in becoming Miss Utah. And then you also played piano with another young woman who became Miss Utah. Can you tell me more? JA: Yes, I was fortunate to meet a lot of key people in my life. When I was Miss Lehi, we spent the day with the current Miss Utah, and it was Vanessa Ballam. And I think until that point we hadn’t realized that Miss Utah could be effective for creating change in her community. And it was interesting for me to see how people looked at her and followed what she had to say, and again how gracious she was and how everyone seemed to be just drawn to her. And it made me think that there was something more to this than having your picture on the program. (laughs) And then I competed that year at Miss Utah and Jami Palmer won. I became friends with her, and she helped me be able to be in her piano class and study with David Glen Hatch, [and] also gain a friendship there, so that was fortunate and lucky. (laughs) JE: What exactly made you try out for Miss Lehi? That was your first pageant? JA: I wanted to be Miss Lehi my whole life from the time I was ten. I just knew that that would be the thing for me, and I don’t think I ever questioned anything more. And it wasn’t to be Miss America, and it wasn’t to be Miss Utah. It was just kind of the culminating experience of growing up. I think was the reason I wanted to enter that.

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And then of course, I found my platform, organ, eye, and tissue donation awareness and that really made me see that it was more than just the one night of the pageant—that it was the rest of the year that mattered. And so as I went on to become Miss Utah County, it was really the driving force behind my wanting to be Miss Utah—was to be able to promote this platform—and seeing how easy it would be for a Miss Utah to create change by this spokesperson for organ donation. JE: When you tried out for Miss Lehi, everyone thought that you couldn’t win because somebody was competing in the pageant, can you tell me about that? JA: There was a girl who I think everyone thought that she would win because all of her sisters had been—had won. And my friends told me this, Oh, you know, this likely won’t happen. And my parents didn’t want me to do it. And it wasn’t necessarily because of that, they just felt like it, we don’t know—but they offered me five hundred dollars saying, Please don’t do this, don’t try out for this pageant. It would be embarrassing or I think they just thought I would melt onstage or be embarrassed myself or embarrass them. I’m not sure. My brothers and sister sat on the aisle; they were ready to go, wanted nothing to do with this. Of course as soon as I win they’re (laughs) the first ones on the stage sooooo happy, and you can hear them yelling on the videotapes for every pageant. But it was interesting to go from that to having all their love and support. JE: At Miss Lehi, they give away a lot of awards at the end of the pageant before they announce the winner, what award did you want to win? JA: I think going into it—I had put together a huge scrapbook for my community service and I felt like that would be important to win. And I was quite devastated to not win it, but I probably most importantly was winning. We all like to win, and that was important to me. I don’t think I doubted myself, and not in an egotistical way I just felt like that would be the thing that would happen for me. And it’s hard to describe without sounding like, “Oh I just knew I would win.” But, I felt like it was going to happen for me and it wasn’t too surprising to win. And I never felt—I just always felt like things would go well. JE: Did you win any additional awards at Miss Lehi? JA: No, I never really win awards. JE: Oh, so you won the pageant. How much scholarship did you win with that? JA: I want to say 10,000 dollars, probably not. (laughs) Hmm, I don’t know, to be honest. I know that in total I won 39,500 dollars, and I’m trying to add it all up in my head. So probably 10,000. I don’t know. JE: Good for you. JA: Do you know? (laughs) JE: I thought it was 4,000 (laughs) because that’s how much it was when I competed. JA: Where did I win all of that money then?

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JE: Well, you won— JA: I won 10,000. JE: So you won two years in a row at Miss Utah the Quality of Life Award, how much was that worth? JA: For a 1,000. Those were a thousand, so there was 2,000, and I won 20,000 at Miss America, 10,000 for winning. I think I got a lot of money. I got more than you were offered. JE: (laughs) You did, but you won the Quality of Life as well at Miss America, so that was 10,000— JA: And 10,000 for making the top ten, 10,000 for winning Miss Utah, so that’s 30,[000] and I won 39,500. So I was Miss Utah County, and I think that’s where the 500 comes into play, because and it was not—I think they prorated it because I won in August and became Miss Utah in June, therefore was no longer Miss Utah County. So someone else got like 75 dollars for something. (laughs) It was funny. JE: This is your Miss Lehi crown. JA: This is the Miss Lehi crown. It’s huge and someone told me to wash it in Mr. Clean, and that was the wrong thing to do, (laughs) so it’s not as sparkly as it once was. (laughs) It kind of ruined it. It doesn’t tarnish interestingly enough, the Mr. Clean helped do that. JE: You wore that throughout your year as Miss Lehi? JA: Yes, I had to do my hair in like a big French twist so it would stay on; it was severely anchored. If a short hair girl had would of won she would of had an elastic around her chin I think (laughs) because it’s huge. It hurts; you think its fun to be a queen, not with that one. JE: Can you tell me about the service you did as Miss Lehi? JA: Sure, you know it’s been like ten years, ten years. Oh so as Miss Lehi, I was in a lot of parades. I was fortunate enough to work with Intermountain Donor Services in Salt Lake. And so I went to hundreds of health fairs, not hundreds, probably dozens of health fairs and was able to learn a lot about organ donations and start talking with people. I was able to put an insert into the utility bills in Lehi to let everyone know that they needed to let their family know that they wanted to be organ donors. Now it’s very simple, you can go to YesUtah.org and sign up and that’s it; you’re an organ donor. But until the year 2001, 2002—in 2002 they created that, but until then you had to tell your family and hope that when the time came they chose for you to become an organ donor. So I worked towards that while I was Miss Lehi. JE: Good for you, and then can you tell me about your year as Miss Lehi at Miss Utah your first year?

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JA: Uh, it didn’t go so well. (laughs) I didn’t make the top ten. Everyone was like I bet you were about number 11, but I bet I was about number 49. I hear that my interview is really funny. I’ve never seen it; I don’t really want to see it. I learned a lot. I fell down the stairs; I went onstage with costume problems. My hair, my hair came out of its hairdo. It was kind of a bad experience as far as competing, but as far as catching the spirit of Miss Utah, again it made me realize that that was something I wanted to do. And as we were leaving that day, we were in the parking lot, my family and I, and I was so relieved that it was over and again I hurt myself falling down the stairs. I just wanted to go home; I was done. And a man came up—and Richard Losee came up and said, “Did you see how Vanessa changed from last year to this year.” And it was a very obvious change as far as confidence and the person she became. He said, “I see that in you, I see that there is something about you, you need to come back.” And so we were like maybe, and then they told me to try out for Miss Utah County; you’re Miss Lehi; that’s the natural thing to do. And it just spiraled from there and became something that was meant to be I think. With organ donation, a program was set up while I was Miss Lehi called The Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation, and they sponsored a lot of my clothes and a lot of different things as I went into Miss Utah the next year. So they were behind me because they could also see the value of having a Miss Utah represent their organization. JE: After Miss Utah you tried out for Miss Utah County, but you had surgery from when you fell down the stairs at Miss Utah, what happened, what developed? JA: Yeah, well it was super lucky because I went to Mexico right after I finished Miss Utah that year, and I ended up with a parasite and lost about twenty-five pounds that week, which helped me to win Miss Utah County I think. So I had hernia repair from when I fell down the stairs as soon as we got back from Mexico, and so that was interesting about a week and a half before the pageant. The interesting thing that happened in that pageant while trying out—that in the middle of my song, well three quarters of the way through, the pedal fell off the piano. They had a grand piano. And it didn’t just fall, the whole pedal structure fell off of the piano. And so I went back and I was like, That was a wreck because the pedal was down, and it just sounded horrible. I was kind of like, Whatever. So then the director came down and she’s like—and I was in my evening wear ready to compete and they said, Oh, the judges want to hear your talent again, and so I was like okay. But—and I went out they said, We can’t get the piano up on the stage; we just rolled one in the aisles, but we can’t get light on it.” And so I played in the dark, and I just won, which was impressive, and I think also meant to be. It wasn’t, I doubt that I was—looking back, I’m sure there were others who were more qualified at the time, but I also think that it was just supposed to happen for me. [13:41] JE: Because girls who had competed at Miss Utah County who— JA: Had finished. A number of girls had finished as attendants, even the first attendant was there. And so the girl who placed number 49 won (laughs), which maybe it was just that I

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got a parasite; I don’t know. But, I really feel like it was the hand of God; that things were set in motion and supposed to happen. JE: How did you prepare differently for Miss Utah as Miss Utah County? JA: I really prepared. I went to the gym every day, which is something that I had never done, I spent two hours a day at the gym after school. I concentrated on interview. I did every area. I wore my high heels everywhere, walking around. My pageant directors, bless their hearts, put me in high heels in my swimsuit and made me walk around their houses in their driveways on main streets in Provo. They would put on music, and there I was in swimsuit and high heels walking pageant circles. And which made me because I was a bad walker—but it helped me to gain confidence, and it helped me to become a lot better. And so maybe, where I maybe prepared a little bit as Miss Lehi, it was my main focus going into it. I was also fortunate enough to have sent out a missionary at that time, so I wasn’t dating. I was able to completely focus on school, and when I wasn’t in school I was focusing on the pageant. I also began studying with David Glen Hatch in January of 2001, and I practiced four or five hours a day every day until the pageant in June and then again until the pageant in September—so for about nine months four hours a day. JE: And that shows there’s more to the pageant that you do throughout the year. JA: And that’s what people don’t understand, is that when you win, it’s because you are the most prepared girl. It’s not just because you were lovely and well—it’s because you worked so hard and were able to present yourself in a way that helped you to win. It’s never a coincidence; it’s always hard work and determination that helped you to win. JE: So you’re at Miss Utah for your second year, and they gave away preliminary awards for different areas. JA: And I’ve never won a preliminary award in all of my competing. There have been a number of girls who’ve had the same experience and a number who have won every single one. But again I won the Quality of Life Award, and that made me feel good and know no matter what, I had made a difference with my community service. And I knew that no matter what happened that I would continue to work with that and help that to become something more. JE: What was your reaction this year when they announced you into the top ten? JA: It was a relief almost just to think, Okay this is really going forward, and just yeah relief. And it was exciting, but also relieving to know that this could actually happen, and all of our plans were coming to fruition. And I remember being in the top five and just terrified at that point when we were doing the onstage interview. It all seemed to be happening so quickly, and I couldn’t control what was coming out of my mouth. And I was terrified and looking around and thinking these girls that I’m competing against are so experienced and so wonderful and professional. It was a little nerve-wracking, but it went so quickly that I didn’t have much time to freak out, like I probably should have. JE: What did you compete in that night, the final night at Miss Utah?

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JA: Everything. In—I started I think they started with evening wear and then talent and then cut it, nope, swimsuit, evening wear, talent, and they cut it to the five and did the interviews and then that was it. JE: The emcee that year at Miss Utah was Sharlene Wells Hawkes. And she is actually Miss America 1985, and we hadn’t had a Miss Utah place at Miss America since Sharlene. And that night when she was interviewing you, she said, “We need another Miss Utah to place in Atlantic City and I think this girl is going to win Miss America.” So you went to Miss America. Tell me what happened? JA: When I was at Miss America, I was fortunate enough to be named to the top ten, which was really a great feeling to get Utah there. We felt she deserved to be there a number of times, so it was good for our state to have me place there. It’s happened again since me one time, right? I think one time Katie Millar made the top ten, and I think it will happen more. And I would love to see a Miss Utah become a Miss America, which would be great. But it was good to make the top ten and to realize that I had worked so hard and was able to have that happen, which doesn’t happen for a lot of people, and I also won ten thousand dollars, so that was good. (laughs) JE: This year at Miss America was the first time they announced a top twenty. You made the top twenty, and then you made it into the top ten. How did you feel and what did you compete in when you were first called into the top twenty? JA: So they called the top twenty, and I competed in evening wear. I had a long sleeve knit dress that had fur around the shoulders and the neck and into the back. And it was exciting, but also a little bit terrifying to think, What now? The good thing at Miss America is that you practice and practice and practice so much, so by the time you’re competing, it’s second nature. And so I was able to just continue on. The only thing that made me nervous was finding the TV marks. It was important that you stand in certain places. And I was nervous that I wouldn’t remember which marks I was supposed to be standing on. But then I think it went well and then after evening wear they called the top ten, and I was thrilled to be in the top ten. And I competed in swimsuit and then that was it. JE: And you were very actually modest at Miss America? JA: I had a one-piece swimsuit. It was important to me to keep the standards of the Church to think, and I was Miss Utah for a year, but I had been a member of the Church my whole life and will be my whole life.1 So that was an important thing for me to portray who I was for a lifetime and not just at that moment. And when I chose my evening wear, they gave me a sketch of like about thirty-two dresses and they said, Which one? And there was one with sleeves, so I said, “This one.” I was able to choose if my swimsuit was one- piece or two-piece, and I chose one-piece. And they chose a really ugly swimsuit for me that I hated, but I wore because it was in my contract to do what they said, but first and

1. Jaclyn refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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foremost it was important for me to follow the standards set for us as members of the Church. JE: That year at Miss America it was very special as well because that was the year of 2001 and when we had the terrorist attacks on us. Can you tell us about the morning of 9/11 when you work up and what you did and how you found out about the attacks? JA: Okay. I arrived in Atlantic City the day before the attacks on September 10, 2001. And it was exciting to be there, and they did a bunch of press interview and they had us ready for the next two weeks. We would be appearing in numerous places, had many parties, and breakfasts and dinners and dances set up. And everything changed that morning. I remember I was blow-drying my hair, and we were watching CNN to prepare for interview. My interview was coming up, and I wanted to know the latest news and they said, We have breaking news from New York. And they broke to that news. We saw the smoke, and my traveling companion and I literally went to the windows to see if we could see it too because we were in New Jersey; we didn’t know how far away we were. And we continued to watch and saw live as the second plane hit the towers, and right after that happened, it was time for me to be to the convention center. And we rode down the elevator; I was in Caesar’s Palace Casino, and it was crazy people were running everywhere. People broke the elevator because there were so many going up and down; the elevators, they stopped working right after I got out. I got in the car with and I was riding with Miss Washington DC. And her dad was an air traffic controller, and she’d been talking to him, and she was telling us things that he had told her that we hadn’t heard. And it was terrifying the whole week was—sorry—very, very scary to be there without my family, to experience what we experienced. But it was also unifying to be with someone from every state and to have that experience of being together with those girls. They had us vote whether or not we wanted to continue with the pageant. There were a number of girls, including Miss America Angie Baraquio who said—she said, “I just wanna go home; I don’t want to be here.” Of course we wanted to be there because it was still Miss America. So they asked us to vote on it, and it was about two-thirds of us voted yes and one-third of us voted no. At that point I was tempted to go with no because I thought I could practice the piano more, be a little more tan, a little more toned, and come back [and] maybe have a little bit better shot at it, whatever. But then I thought that it needed to be us because in a way Miss America is an American tradition and was one way of celebrating America. And if they stopped us from having the pageant, then I think they won in a way, making us terrified, making us change our way of life because of them. And so I think that was why most of us said yes. JE: You guys had a candlelight vigil as well. Can you tell me about that? JA: Uh-huh, we had one of the days after; I forget which day it was. President Bush invited everyone in the country to come together in religious service or any community service to come together and to support America. So that evening they gave us all candles; they took us to a mall and lined us up an escalator and had us sing songs. But it was really one

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of my favorite moments at Miss America if not my favorite moment because it just helped you realize—I’ve always been a patriot. It’s been something my grandfather instilled in his children, and then my mother instilled in us. We love America. If you see my bedroom, it’s the USA theme; if you look throughout my mom’s room—we are American fans. And so it was wonderful to go to it with that feeling, but even more to gather together and know that the rest of the country was there together saying that we love America and how great our country was; it was a good moment. JE: Miss America was the first television program to come on during all the breaking news. JA: Uh-huh, it was yeah. It’s a good thing they put us on TV. I think ABC was very involved in the decision as to whether or not to continue with the pageant. And we didn’t know for a number of days what was going to happen. But when they did decide, they put together a press conference, and they invited us all to be up onstage with the president of Miss America to announce to the world that we would be continuing with the pageant. And that was a powerful moment too. In a way it felt like we were the standing up against the terrorist saying, You’re not stopping us, and we’re going ahead with this. JE: How old were you again when you went to Miss America? JA: I was twenty. It was September, and I was turning twenty-one in April. JE: Then another thing at Miss America for the first time, you had the opportunity to choose somebody to walk with you in evening gown, and you didn’t choose your father. Why was that? JA: That’s right. It didn’t occur to us when they sent the letter. (laughs) It said, “Choose a male representative from your family.” It didn’t specifically say “your father.” So to us we just thought, Oh, that would be great for Danny. He was a senior in high school. We thought, Oh, he’d be so thrilled; he’ll be on TV. It made him instantly much more popular so— JE: Danny is your brother? JA: My brother. We choose for him, and I don’t think we even thought that everyone would have their fathers, which was funny because I think a lot of people thought that my father had passed away or something and couldn’t be there. (laughs) so they were touched with my brother. But really it was perfect. We did a little handshake and it was, it was nice to have my brother there. We’re the two middle children in our family, and it just seemed appropriate? I don’t think we ever even thought of having my dad; I don’t know if he felt badly, (laughs) but when we read the letter, we all just knew instantly that we would have my little brother be the escort. For some reason—I have an older brother; I have my dad; I have grandparents, but we just chose him. JE: No, your dad didn’t feel bad. I asked him once, and he said he felt the right thing for you to choose your brother. You guys had all been on TV, but this brother hadn’t, so it was good for him.

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JA: Yeah, we just knew that it would be—he just remembers Miss Tennessee being behind us. (laughs) She was lovely; she was like a real-life Barbie doll. And boy for ages he was popular for having been by Miss Tennessee. (laughs) JE: Can you show me any awards you won at Miss America and your Miss Utah Crown? JA: Sure, this is the Quality of Life Award I won at Miss America. Lovely, right? Actually the first one they gave me had the wrong award on it. They gave me one for the academic achievement, not me, real smart, but not as smart as the doctor who won that. This is my Miss Utah crown; the box has seen better days, but the crown is still intact. My mom keeps it clean for me. Lovely. [27:12] JE: Can you tell me about the four points of the crown and what they mean? JA: Ah, it’s like I’m in a pageant interview. (laughs) People say different things, but this is the one I say: it’s for the four points of competition. You’ve heard something else? JE: I have. I’ve heard the four S’s. That it’s for style, service, scholarship, and success. JA: Well, there you go. See and I’ve heard that it’s that—it’s a round thing and it shows that you’re a well-rounded person for the four areas of competition. JE: Both together. (laughs) JA: Probably because I can’t remember those four words. (laughter) And this is the box I carried it in, which is good because I dropped it so many time including on my very last day as being Miss Utah. It like fell out of my car and rolled down the street. I like the box more than the crown. I really don’t know why. I just really like the box. It was my constant companion. JE: That is good. Well throughout after you’re done at Miss America, you were still Miss Utah, so can you tell me more about the service that you did? You spoke at many DARE graduations, at girls’ camp—you also got to be at the 2002 Olympics.2 JA: Yeah, I had a lot of great experiences, and I think that people don’t understand that being Miss Utah really is about the other 364 days of the year, and sometimes I say that it’s unfortunate that we have to choose a winner through the pageant because it’s not about that. It’s not about being in your swimsuit or having a wonderful talent. It’s about the chance you have to make a difference and to speak to different groups. We think we had, oh, close to eight hundred appearances as Miss Utah, which was a lot more than has happened in the past. Because I worked with organ donation awareness, I had the chance to go to schools and sometimes do seven or eight different classroom presentations a day. So at least three days a week, I was in the schools in junior highs and high schools teaching them about organ donation awareness. Every Thursday I spent with the Quest

2. DARE is the acronym for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The DARE program gives children the skills they need to resist drugs, gangs, and violence.

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for the Gift of Life Foundation going around raising money for a monument that’s downtown at Library Square. JE: You have a square there. JA: I have a square there. They were kind enough to donate a thousand dollars from my scholarship to pay for that square and to donate towards the monument and that’s why I have the paperis(??) because they used part of my scholarship for that community service. I got special permission to do that. So that was a huge accomplishment and something that—I’m grateful to have something tactile for what I accomplished as Miss Utah. I certainly didn’t create that monument by myself, but I feel like I was instrumental in the creating of it because of the time that I spent. I spent every Thursday for a year—out speaking to everyone and anyone who would listen about fundraising for that monument and the importance of it. JE: And then one time at a DARE graduation something happened with a young boy. Can you tell me what happened? JA: Towards the end of my year, I was preparing my piano pieces that I would be performing at Miss Utah when I’d give up my crown, and one of them was “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” And it was a piano quartet, and I was playing the hardest part, which my piano teacher once it was done said, “I didn’t think you’re going to be able to do it.” He said, “What did I think by giving her that part?” But I had to practice so much. And most of it was octaves, really, really fast octaves in the right hand. It just loosened my hand up a lot. I was practicing again four or five hours a day. I had to get up at four o’clock in the morning sometimes, and my parents were so sick of it they would make me go to the church to practice because no one wants to hear that much piano every day. So I would go to the church and practice, and at one of the D.A.R.E. graduations—it just seems like six-grade boys will shake your hand as hard as they can to show that they’re a man. Well after one of them, I got home, and it just hurt so bad, and they figured that I had damaged a bunch of ligaments and bones in my wrist. And I couldn’t practice for a few weeks, and it made it really hard to perform with my hurt hand, and it still bothers me to this day. I can’t play as much or as often as I would love too. It’s still painful. JE: How were you able to play that part at Miss Utah? JA: My dad gave me a blessing the night before. I had performed and it was probably a month before and let’s see, it was the last week in April. It was right before my birthday when I think that it happened, so I had six weeks to prepare, and it was hard. I didn’t do so well at all in one of the nights, and I was terrified because this final night I was performing a number of songs. I think four or five songs, and just didn’t think I could do it. It just hurt and it wasn’t happening and my dad came back in my dressing room and gave me a blessing. And it went near perfect, and I’m sure it wasn’t just luck. [31:52] JE: Can you tell me more about the 2002 Olympics?

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JA: It was kind of interesting. They hadn’t made any special preparations looking forward as the Miss Utah committee—looking forward into the Olympics, it was kind of like, Oh, now what? But Coca-Cola had me come to a bunch of their events. I begged myself into a number. One of them—we went to—I was with Meadow Gold. Sorry it was a lot with Meadow Gold, but a couple for Coke, and I was in an outdoor tent, freezing. It was really cold doing autographs, and there was an event for all of the athletes and the IOC to come to at the city and county building in downtown Salt Lake. We just went up to the bouncer and said, “Oh I should be on the list.” I had my crown on. And they were like, Oh, we’re so sorry. And they just let me in, and now I have pictures with Jacques Rogge who is—I am an Olympic fan, and so it was so thrilling for me to be with Jacques Rogge.3 And then I was able to go to a number of—I went to something in Heber with Mitt Romney, and someone sent me to a concert, to a Martina McBride concert, and a medal ceremony, but most of it was just spent out on the streets doing things. I worked with—there was a corvette that was going around with car dealerships, and I signed that. And Katie Harmon, Miss America, came in for that, and so I was able to spend a few hours with her signing autographs, and it was a good time. It was perfect for me because I love the Olympics so much. You shouldn’t call me or come to my house during the Olympics because that’s all I do—all day long. I sew and I watch the Olympics for two weeks. And so it was perfect for me because I was able to really be a part of it. The worst part was I would spend the whole day freezing outside, and then I would come home, and I was dating all of these boys, and they would all want to go downtown and see the Olympics. And I was like, Oh I just got warm, and back to downtown Salt Lake we would go. So I spent a lot of time— My favorite thing, though, was a show that came up from Australia similar to Dave Letterman and Jay Leno—their late night show. And they came up, and I was on their show, and it was the best time I’ve ever had. It was hilarious and our family—we watch the recording all the time. They did my hair; it was lovely. They did my hair and make up. We got to go into the Salt Palace and did all of the—it was crazy—the security checkpoints. And it was such a good time. And that was probably my favorite part of the Olympics was participating in that broadcast. JE: You gave up your title at Miss Utah. Can you tell me about finally being on the other side of the pageant and not having to compete and passing on the title, your legacy? JA: Yeah, I write a note to all of the girls when they’re done being Miss Utah that says something similar to isn’t it funny that the best night is actually the night that you’re done instead of the night that you win? You would think that that would be the most exciting, but we have pictures of me taking off my crown and putting it away for the last time because I was exhausted. I slept four or five hours a night at the most. I had appearances until late in the evenings far away. I was always driving home and finally getting into bed

3. As of the date of this transcription, Jacques Rogge is the eighth and current president of the International Olympic Committee.

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around midnight, getting up at four or five to go to the gym and practice. And it was really, really exhausting; however rewarding, it was exhausting. And I was excited to be done. I was ready to get married. I had met my husband. His mom was my seamstress going into all of this. We had dated and fallen in love, and we got engaged like two weeks after I gave up my crown. So I was ready to move on. I loved being Miss Utah, but I think the thing that made the difference was I lived every day with the motto that I was going to live each day to the fullest, and I was going to do my very best because I knew that one day would come back and if I looked back and thought I had a day that I could’ve done more, I would’ve been really disappointed that there was someone else I could’ve spoken to or someone else that I could’ve seen or another place that I could’ve been. And so I think it’s easy for me to let go and to move on because I did give my all every day the whole time, but I was done. JE: And then as Miss Utah you won a very prestigious award. JA: Yes. JE: Can you tell me about award? JA: I won a number of awards. I received some in San Antonio with the organ donation community. The week I gave up my crown—just a few days after I gave up my crown, they had the national meeting for organ—I can’t say that word—procurement organization came to Utah. And I gave the keynote address, welcoming everyone to Utah and telling them about Utah. And then they presented me with a lovely clock that I love and keep in my home, and that was a really special thing to me. And then the very next week, I went with the Eye Banks of America—give out an award called the Crystal Cornea Award. It’s not something they give out regularly; they just give it out when it’s necessary. I was the fifth person in history to receive it. It had been given to Ann Landers and John Tesh and a man named Redge Green(??) whose son had died and been an organ donor, and he was a great speaker for organ donation for a long time. And it had been given to Heather Whitestone, who was a Miss America, who did great things for the Eye Bank Association also, and me. It was a great week. They flew my parents and me to Florida, and my parents and I had spent a long time—it was raining in Florida so after I received the award we just drove up the coast and had a lovely vacation. It was a good transition for me because I had just finished being Miss Utah and it was good to just be able to relax and drive and see the eastern coast, and it was nice. JE: Well, after being married you had to have additional eye surgery. Can you tell me about that? JA: When my son—I had a daughter and while I was pregnant with her in 2005, my eyes started to fail. I got cold sores on my cornea, which was a problem and extremely painful, and it caused it to start to die. And they felt that there were only a few cells left in my cornea, and they decided it was time to remove my eye. And so we went to have it removed and the morning of the surgery, I found out that I was pregnant with my son, so we had to put the surgery off for nine months, and when he was five weeks old, we had my eye removed. It was a really bad experience. It was traumatic; things didn’t go as

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planned. It was off center. I spent about eighteen months with like a hole in my head or wearing a pirate patch. It was not a fun experience, and I cried most the time saying, “I was supposed to be beautiful and now look at me.” And it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t fun, and it’s been a really hard experience to go through, but yeah, I couldn’t have more children if we hadn’t gone ahead with that, so in a way it was a good trade off. JE: So you have no seeing out of your right eye? JA: So I have no vision. Most of it went away when I was eighteen, right before I started school at BYU. Most of my vision left when my retina detached, but there was still a little bit and then clearly it was gone when they removed the eye. But I have a prosthetic now and I’ve had a number of surgeries since, but it’s looking up. I will have a major surgery every five years from now on and little ones here and there. [39:34] JE: With all your scholarships that you won, can you tell me what school you went to and got your degree in? JA: I went to BYU [Brigham Young University]. I paid twenty-five dollars for my entire education there. They wouldn’t pay to print my diploma, so I had to pay twenty-five dollars to have my diploma printed. But it paid for everything. It paid for my piano lessons. It paid for rent while I was married even as long as I was enrolled in school, and I graduated in 2004 with a degree in English editing, and I use it today, so I’m’ really grateful for that. I actually continue to use it. I went to LDS Business College for a few semesters while I was—cause I miss school, and I love school, and so I took classes in medical coding. How funny is that? I just liked it. The campus was next to my work, and my husband was at school and working all the time so I figured I might as well take classes. And I took art history classes and just finance classes—just interesting classes to me, so it was just fun to go in the evening and take a few classes, religion. Good stuff. JE: Good for you. I think you are an amazing person. You’re a very amazing Miss Utah, contributed to our state very well, and you’re very, very young. So it goes to show that young people can make a difference. JA: I think so. JE: What is one thing that you’d like to be remembered for in your years? JA: I think the difference that I made for organ donation awareness. It was key time for our state to accept the donor registry that we had. It was set up halfway through my year as Miss Utah. And I think that that made a huge difference, and I’d like to think that lives have been saved. While I was at Miss America, I actually had two friends pass away who were tissue donors, and they said it was for you. Our family knew that the choice we had to make was because of you.

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So I would like to think that I have encouraged people to be organ donors. And I just think it was meant to be, and I don’t want to take a lot of the credit for it because it just seemed like the time was right for Miss Utah to represent organ donation awareness, so I’m just grateful that I had that experience. And like you said, I think it doesn’t matter how old you are, that you can make a difference. I was twenty years old, and I feel like I made a significant difference. We have the monument downtown that I and a lot of people worked tirelessly for that reminds people constantly to think about organ donation. We have the donor registry, which at the time was brand new in the world of organ donation awareness. And by the time I was done being Miss Utah, I think 83 percent of Utah had signed up for it. And so for me that was a significant contribution for someone who was so young, but I don’t think it matters how old you are or what stage in life you are; everyone can make a difference, and I think that’s the thing that people can take. JE: Well, thank you so much. Thank you for letting me interview you. Enjoy your day. JA: Thank you. It’s a lovely day too. JE: Thank you. [ 42:33] End of interview

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