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Miss West Virginia Miranda Harrison
Miranda Harrison (left), Miss West Virginia 2013, is shown with her family: Sherri Richmond McKinney, Nolan McKinney and Rick McKinney.
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iranda Harrison, a third-generation Marshall University student, was named Miss West Virginia 2013 July 3 at the Morgantown Event Center. She will compete in the Miss America scholarship pageant at Atlantic City, N.J., Sept. 15, which will be broadcast on television by ABC. Competing as Miss Southern West Virginia, her platform was “Never Say Never,” which works to help cancer-stricken children and their families. A talented vocalist, Harrison, who has been invited to audition for the television talent show “The Voice,” sang “Bound to You” from the movie Burlesque in the talent portion of the competition. She’s a broadcast journalism major, with a performance theatre minor, and a fervent cheerleader for Marshall. “I was born and raised in Kelly green and I am so excited to wear it,” the ebullient Harrison says. And she’s looking forward to giving Marshall some national exposure as well. During the rehearsal week preceding the Miss America competition, the Miss America
organization will be posting photos of the individual contestants on its website. “You will definitely see me in Marshall gear during that week!” she vows. Harrison has been competing in pageants since she was 14 and has racked up an impressive number of titles. Among others, she was Miss Kanawha Valley 2012 in the Miss America competition, and in Virginia she was Miss Hanover, Miss Southeastern Virginia’s Outstanding Teen, Miss Arlington’s Outstanding Teen, and Miss York County’s Outstanding Teen. Harrison’s family is passionate about Marshall as well. Her mother, Sherri Richmond McKinney, currently working in public relations as a senior video producer for the Virginia Farm Bureau, graduated from Marshall in 1991 with an RBA degree with emphases in journalism and political science. McKinney’s parents, Ira and Dreama Minks Richmond, graduated in the early 1950s with degrees in education. Before their retirement, Ira was the longtime principal at Maxwell Hill Elementary in Raleigh County, where Dreama was a first-grade teacher.
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