COUNTRY CALIBER
MEET FLORIDA’S 2022 SUGAR QUEEN CLEWISTON’S PEYTON-GRACE LEE ‘DOING WHAT I LOVE MOST’
W
hile this central Florida small town may have only four stoplights, Clewiston is the home of U.S. Sugar Corp., and now holder of their 2022 representative, Miss Sugar Peyton-Grace Lee.
This is the third pageant title from Hendry County that this beautiful young lady has held in the past five years. She has attended the Clewiston Christian School since age 3, is currently a sophomore at the high school. And she recently became a 2022 Hendry County Leadership graduate. According to Lee, it took “tons of convincing” to get her to enter her first pageant, the Little Miss Hendry County
event. Hearing “Contestant Number 10, Peyton-Grace Lee” announced as the winner, that sparked it all for her. “I had big dreams with a little mindset,” she says, and on Feb. 14, 2017, her big dream came true. With that dream came responsibilities, and Lee took them all in stride. She was the first in her family to become involved in the pageantry world, and winning this initial title made her feel unstoppable. Of course, her family helped to keep her grounded, and she continued their traditions of fishing, hog hunting, sitting in the blind or stand, and helping dad Jesse fill feeders on the ranch. A couple of years went by, and Lee again found herself on
Once Lee accepted the crown, her duties began, as shown at right at the annual Clewiston Sugar Festival. She is pictured with childhood friend Bronson Blevins, left, her barn-mate when raising 4-H steers, and Hunter Lee (no relation), on the right.
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F L O R I DAC O U N T RY J u n e | J u l y 2 0 2 2 F L O R I DAC O U N T RY J u n e | J u l y 2 0 2 2
PHOTOS COURTESY OF RUSHELLE LEE
Written by: Kathy Ann Gregg