Pageant News Bureau - Miss Ohio 2005

Marlia Fontaine, Miss Ohio

Photos by Joe Whiteko / PNB

This is one of three special astrological features for the month of September 2005. It commemorates 10 years since the founding of PNB, and 84 years since the founding of the Miss America Pageant. Both institutions came into being when Venus lay in the House of Neptune, and the sun was just peeking over the windowsill.

Ohio is the place on Earth closest to the moon. But you can't measure this closeness with scientific instruments. It's a matter of history.

In the summer of 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon. Billions of people followed his progress on radio and television. He beamed a two-sentence speech back to Earth, then planted an American flag and skipped like a happy child in the low lunar gravity.

Armstrong arrived on the moon as a representative of the United States. But the happy child in him was a son of Ohio, the place of his birth. The Buckeye State has felt a little closer to the heavens ever since.

In 2005, as the moon and sun took up their positions for the last weekend before the summer solstice, talented singer Marlia Elisha Fontaine was crowned Miss Ohio 2005. Astrologically speaking, it was as an event as significant as Armstrong's landing.

Kristen Swinehart, Miss North Coast, doing her high-powered tap.

Here are the facts: The heavenly bodies were in perfect alignment that night. (We saw them.) Ms. Fontaine was competing as Miss Erie County, representing an area that borders the state's largest body of water. And the influence of the moon's gravity on large bodies of water is well known. As the famed physicist Dr. Zarkoff would say, "Something was bound to happen."

The first runner-up was talented tap dancer Kristen Swinehart, Miss North Coast. Budding astrologers will note yet another connection to a large body of water. Coincidence?

PNB extends special thanks to the people of Ohio, to the organizers of the Miss Ohio Pageant, and to Neil Armstrong.

See also Alabama, Massachusetts

Jacquelyn Mayer, who was Miss Ohio 1962 and Miss America 1963, greets the capacity crowd in Mansfield,Ohio, for the final night of the 2005 Miss Ohio Pageant. She's from Sandusky, Ohio.