ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.–Miss America was crowned Sunday night. She is Miss Georgia, Betty Cantrell. But, Miss Mississippi was first runner-up. Hannah Roberts, and she wowed the national audience and the judges with her own composition on the violin.
Roberts, who is a grad of Southern Miss, also answered a political question about the Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue gay marriage licenses.
“It absolutely does not violate her religious freedom,” said Roberts. “That is her job that she was voted into doing and that law is a federal law throughout the rest of the country, so yes she did violate the law.”
Roberts still gets a $25,000 scholarship. She plans to study medicine in Mississippi.
If Cantrell cannot perform her duties as Miss America, Roberts would take over.
That has actually happened before in 1984 when Vanessa Williams lost her crown because of a nude photo scandal.
Williams was at the pageant Sunday and got a formal apology for the 31-year-old incident.
