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For the past 10 years, the Ms. Missouri Senior America Pageant has been held at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre.  The Missouri Cameo Club, consisting of former contestants since the pageant began in 1989, think that the theatre is the perfect venue to hold their pageant.  They think the stage, the theatre staff, and the theatre seats are second to none.

The 2011 pageant will be held on Sunday, July 10 at 2 p.m.  featuring nine lovely contestants from all over the greater St. Louis area, as well as one from Bonne Terre.  These ladies are singers, dancers of various kinds, as well as other talents, who will compete for the title of Ms. Missouri  Senior America 2011.

In North County, there are  three contestants—Peggy Eggers and Wendy Gordon from Florissant and Julia Lamborn Gettinger from Hazelwood.  Peggy has a beautiful soprano voice with an impressive education in singing.  Wendy has a fabulous jazz singer voice who appears in many shows throughout the St. Louis area.  She was a contestant last year, and has decided to compete once again.  Julia is a belly dancer with incredible talent.  She has had an impressive career working toward helping  and educating people in all walks of life.

Tickets can be obtained by calling the theatre box office at 921-5678.  The cost of the tickets vary–$15 per person and $12 per person for groups of ten or more.  They can also be purchased at the door to the theatre on July 10th for $17 each.

The contestants will compete in the following categories:  Personal Interview with the judges before the pageant begins; modeling an evening gown on stage; reciting their 35 second philosophy of life on stage in their evening gown; and performing their competitive quality talent for audience.  After the new queen is crowned, she will be escorted to the Gymnasium where a lovely reception will be held.  All the other contestants will follow the queen to the reception and will  greet their family and friends. Everyone is invited; no extra charge.

The following are profiles of the 3  Area Contestants for Ms. Missouri Senior

Wendy L Gordon held many positions at the United States Postal Service during her employment (37 years 3 months) but she retired in 2006 as an EEO Dispute Resolution Specialist.

She is currently following her lifelong dream entertaining as a Jazz & Blues Vocalist and an Actress. She has written, produced and performed several musical stage plays in series called A Jazz Heaven.  The lst play  “When Billie & Ella Met” she portrayed the life of Billie Holiday through poetry and song. The second series was Entertaining Around Heaven All Day she sang the songs made popular by Lena Horne and Bessie Smith.

She currently is a volunteer storyteller for Oasis. She tells her original stories and poems to intercity children and older adults and she is an active member of St. Louis Gateway Storytellers. She’s currently volunteering at her church to help the people affected by the Good Friday tornado.

Her proudest accomplishments are her children who both earned their BA & MA degrees.

Wendy has adjusted to the life of leisure and enjoys the fruit of her laborer by traveling from sea to sea with her wonderful husband Leevert.

Peggy’s Eggers B.A. is in voice performance from the school of music at University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL) She received Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Fine Arts and Communication at UMSL.

Her M.A. is in opera and musical Theatre is from Southern Illinois University.  She has studied with Metropolitan Opera bass, Robert Best and the famed Romanian soprano Yolanda Marculescu.

She received the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society award.  While attending the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz Austria, she successfully auditioned for the Heissler-Remy agency,  and German Opera Houses in Dusseldorf.

She was Assistant Director of South Florida Lyric Opera’s production of La Boheme and Aida in Dell Ray Beach.

She is the founder and president of Midwest Lyric Opera Company and a recitalist with the Alton and Kirkwood Symphony Orchestras.

Peggy is currently working with Travel the World agency.

She will sing ‘Stars and Stripes Forever”.

Julia E. Lamborn-Gettinger resides in Hazelwood with her husband, Glen, and their four rescued Yorkies.  She considers herself a late-blooming activist, learning on the run.

In the past 12 years, she has become president of a grassroots group that works for health care for all, Missourians for Single Payer, educating citizens around the state about the need for universal health care.  A talented artist, Julia founded an art therapy program for a domestic violence shelter.  An ardent animal lover, Julia established a monthly collection for an animal shelter in St. Charles.

In 2003, she received the Missouri Association for Social Welfare’s “Volunteer of the Year” award, and in 2011. The American Ethical Union’s “Anna Garlin Spencer” award for an outstanding volunteer contributing time and energy to further the goals of the national humanist association and a proclamation for outstanding volunteerism from the Missouri state legislature.

She serves as Chair of the Ethical [social] Action Committee of the Ethical Society of St. Louis, and as Executive Director of the family business, Midwest Oil Recycling Co.  Currently, she is trying her hand at writing a book and a play.  Tonight, Julia will present a Greek dance to the song, “Leila.”

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