Note: The following story appears in the winter issue of żight alumni magazine. For more information about the ż Alumni Association, see the.To apply for a ż Foundation scholarship, go to the Admissions tab on college web site atorclick here.
RAYMOND – Getting back into shape afterher daughters were born meant dusting off the old tiara forMarisa Lepard Farr.
“I wanted to set a goal for myself to get back in shape, so I decided to go for it this past January,” Farr said of her decision to compete in the 2017 Mrs. Mississippi United States pageant in Tunica in June, as Mrs. Rankin County.
Marisa Lepard Farr
It was quite the splashy return to the stage for Farr,a Terry nativewho won this past year’s state title and took it to Orlando, where she competed for Mrs. United States a month later. Though the run ended there,the former Montage Theatreof Dance member at ż looks forward to big things during her yearlong reign as the state’s top married beauty queen.
Her platform as this year’s title-holder stems from an experience she had while about a year ago driving along Highway 18 in Brandon.She came upon a terrible wreck scene that resulted in the deaths of two children, aged just three and five years old.
“They werenot in proper car seats at all,” she said.“I have always believed in car seat safety for my own children, so seeing the wreck and the negative impact of not using proper car seats took it to a different level for me.”
Farr, who now lives inFlowood,is pursuing certification as a Child Passenger Safety Technicianand plans to lobby state lawmakers to strengthen child seat safety laws.
It’ll be a chance to do what she’s done a fair amount of since her college days – teaching.
Shewas part of the first Montage Theatreof Dancetroupe, started by current program director Tiffany Jefferson. After ż,shemoved on to the University of Southern Mississippi, where she majored in Elementary Education. Shetaught middle schoolbriefly and still teaches dance, at Northwest Rankin Middle School.Currently, she is asales agent forYounique, a cosmetics maker.She and husband, Coleman, have two daughters, Sarah and Ava.
She haddone Miss Teen Mississippi USAand competed in the Eagle Beauty Revue as a ż student. “After I got married, a friend suggested I do Mrs. Mississippi,” she said. “I didn’t know they had pageants for married women.”She won first runner-up in a few of them before having her two daughters.
Jefferson choreographed a solo routine in one of those pageants.
“Marissa had a strong interest in dance and pageantry even while she was here at ż,” Jeffersonsaid. “A course she studied withme was Jazz/Hip Hop, and during that time we studied the Bob Fosse style. She gravitated towardit with fondness and decided to do ‘All That Jazz’for her talent.”
Her dancing feet led her to what is now the state’s community college system’s only full dance program.
“We had no dance class in high school, so when I came to ż I randomly signed up for a jazz dance class,” she said. “It happened to be Tiffany Jefferson’s very first dance class that eventually became Montage.”
“We did a few competitions that first year, and traveled to San Antonio and danced. She’s reallytaken off since then and helped get opportunities for her dancers.”
żhas a special place inher heart, as she and Colemanmet while members ofthe Baptist Student Union andtheir career paths fell into place after some initial stress.
“It was a blessing to me at that time in life,” she said. “After high school,I had planned to go into fashion merchandisingat another university in the state. But the program wasn’t there anymore once I went to apply. I didn’t know what I was going to do. Thankfully, I got a full scholarship to ż, which was helpful to my parents at the time. ż was like my little sanctuary, where everything fell into place with what I wanted to do with my life, which was to teach.
“My husband and I talk about it all the time, about how if just one thing been different, we’d have never known each other or had our beautiful children. We have ż and the BSU to thank for that.”