was African American!
LOL!! Ok so wait a second. God must have a wicked sense of humor!
Her name is Maryline BlackBurn and she is the only Alaskan to have ever beaten Sarah Palin at anything. She was interviewed by the Washington Post today.
Here's what she had to say about Sarah Palin:
"You can feel who your competition is going to be, and she was in my top five," Blackburn told us. "She had that look in her eye that we saw the other night when she gave her speech -- that 'I'm in it because I really want to win.' "
Back in 1984, it was Blackburn who won the crown and advanced to Atlantic City as Alaska's first African American delegate to the Miss America pageant. Palin -- then Sarah Heath-- was second runner-up. Today, of course, Palin is John McCain 's running mate. Blackburn, not quite as famous, is an Atlanta gospel and R&B singer with three CDs to her name who sees their shared past on the tiara circuit as genesis for the different dreams they're each chasing today.
1984’s Miss Alaska contestants. Maryline Blackburn in back row, third from left and Sarah Palin in front row, second from left.
How will she vote? "I'm on the Obama train," Blackburn said. She was impressed by her former competitor's speech ("the sarcastic lines, that's Sarah") but wonders if it's enough.
"Most girls that are in pageants, we know how to turn it on," she said. "There's a lot more to it than that."