The finals of the Miss Louisiana Pageant were held last night at the W.L. “Jack” Howard Theater at the Monroe Civic Center. Jo Hilliard, a recent Nursing major graduate of University of Louisiana at Monroe, won 1st Runner up out of 33 contestants. She came in second place to winner Laryssa Bonacquisti, who will go on to compete in Atlantic City at the Miss America Pageant later this year.
Hilliard was Miss Monroe 2014 and served the City of Monroe, participating in many official and social events throughout her year of reign. She competed in last night’s pageant as Miss Cane River and her platform was S.T.A.T. “Strategies Targeting Adolescent Thinking”. A very competitive singer, Hillard won a $1,000 scholarship and the talent competition on Friday night. Both she and Bonacquisti were the winners of the Friday night preliminary.
She has been singing since she was three years old and participated in musical theater in high school. During this week’s competition, she sang “All in love is fair.” She could be nothing more than blessed to be on the stage. She made that testimony both Friday and Saturday night.
“Glory be to God that I’m standing here right now with this talent award in my hand,” she said on Friday. On Saturday night on stage during the on-stage question, when asked how she felt, Hilliard replied “I’m blessed beyond measure.”
She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and volunteered many hours of service with the ULM Chapter Theta Zeta while she studied nursing at the university. Hilliard is currently a registered nurse at the Lane Regional Medical Center in Zachary, Louisiana.
