Smith, a 2016 Shawnee High School graduate, competed as Miss Kentucky to capture the Miss USA crown during the 70th Miss USA pageant on Nov. 29 in Oklahoma.
While she was a student at Shawnee, Smith participated in choir, orchestra and drama. She also was a volleyball player and an honor student, her mother, Lydia Smith, said.
“The amount of support she has received is just overwhelming,” the elder Smith said of her daughter. “And the pageant is really about empowering women.”
Credit: WHAS-TV
Credit: WHAS-TV
Smith’s former high school guidance counselor, Sherry Akers, said that she and others in the Clark-Shawnee school district are “thrilled” for Smith and her family.
“Elle inspires everyone who knows her — even after she graduated, she still inspires us,” said Akers. “Elle is an authentic example of empowerment, and we hope to embrace that virtue going forward.”
Elle Smith earned a journalism degree at the University of Kentucky and is a multimedia journalist at TV station WHAS 11 in Louisville.
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