Julie’s Junior Miss Legacy

COLLEGE PLACE - It has been 43 years since 17-year-old Julie Stonecipher, a farmer's daughter from Waitsburg, won the Washington State American Junior Miss competition and was runner-up at the national American Junior Miss competition.

The Touchet Valley held parades in her honor, signs bearing her name sat at the entrances to Waitsburg and she even received a key to the city of Walla Walla.

After many years away from the largest and oldest national scholarship program for high school girls, Julie Stonecipher, now Julie Yokel, is sitting in the judge's seat and helping out behind the scenes to inspire young women to set goals and overcome their obstacles.

After two years judging the state competition, which is now called Distinguished Young Women of Washington, organizers have called on her to help out more behind the scenes.

"The main thing I want to do now is promote the program," Yokel said. "I was very honored that (contest organizers) asked. I feel like I've come full circle."

When the local Jaycees decided to sponsor a Touchet Valley American Junior Miss competition, 17-year-old Yokel thought "why not? Sounds like fun," she recalled.

Yokel had no idea what she was really in for.

"She came home and told me she signed up for something," her mother, JoAn Hamilton Stonecipher said. "We were pretty innocent about the whole thing. She was not groomed for it."

The Touchet Valley competition had nine young women from Prescott, Waitsburg and Dayton competing for scholarship money. It was the first time it had even been held in the valley.

Yokel said she had wanted to be in a pageant since she watched Miss America on TV when she was 4 years old so she signed up.

The competition was judged in the areas of fitness, talent, poise and appearance and Yokel worked hard and won the Touchet Valley title.

Before she knew it, she was competing at the state level. At the state competition, she won most of the categories despite a case of pneumonia, she said. Yokel remembers passing out backstage after the fitness portion because she ignored her doctor's orders to stay in bed.

Despite her illness, Yokel took the state competition that year and had months to prepare for the national competition in Mobile, Ala.

What was most shocking to Yokel and her family was the amount of support for her that poured from the community.

Yokel recalls being allowed by administrators to skip out on high school P.E. to train for nationals by herself in the Waitsburg High School gym. She had read up on fitness and got in shape for the competition by running, dancing, stretching and doing pilates-type exercises.

Her talent was singing and in an interlude, she recited an original poem.

During her preparation period for nationals, she was called on to appear at many local events all around the valley, her mother JoAn said.

When the time to travel to Mobile for nationals arrived, it was a scary and exciting moment for Yokel and her family that traveled with her. She had only traveled on small family vacations and it was her first time in an airplane.

"I was a farm girl - I hadn't been anywhere!" Yokel said with a laugh.

JoAn said her daughter was different from many other national contestants. The other girls had started in pageants at a young age and were from larger cities with more resources.

But JoAn said her daughter performed so well at the national level, taking home second place, because of her involvement in the Rainbow Girls program and because she's so outgoing and talented.

JoAn said it was easy for the family to pick the winner of the national competition as events played out, but they had no idea Yokel would score so well.

"It was really exciting," JoAn said. "And it turned out to be a community affair."

The community held parades for Yokel in Waitsburg and Dayton and she was honored in Walla Walla for her accomplishment. JoAn said this is the first time she really saw the valley communities come together as one.

"We never heard much about Touchet Valley until this came up," she said. "It just amazed me that she was able to do that."

Yokel said she was blessed to participate in the program and will forever be thankful for the local support.

"It was a rare and precious thing to have been raised in such a place as Waitsburg where people know what it means to share in one another's joys and sorrows," Yokel said.

For Yokel, when she returned home after nationals, she said her head was spinning and it was hard to take in all of the attention. However, she had more than $6,000 now in scholarship money and she headed straight to the University of Washington.

She said at college at that time period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, being in a pageant was frowned upon. But she is thankful that money paid for five years of schooling. She later earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature with Distinction from WSU, studied nursing for a bit, and returned to Walla Walla College for her teaching certificate.

She has worked in education for 30 years at the middle school, junior high, high school and community college levels.

After moving on from the world of Junior Miss, Yokel was invited to be a judge for the past two years at the state level and is focusing on encouraging young women to set goals and reach them.

Yokel's favorite thing about being part of the pageant today is working with the contestants. She said she knows exactly how they feel because she has been in their shoes.

She tells the contestants that everyone has their challenges and reassures them that it's human and they can overcome their challenges. Yokel likes that the contest is not simply a beauty pageant. It has no swimsuit competition. It's really about substance. Journalist and role model Diane Sawyer is a famous American Junior Miss Alumnae.

Unfortunately, there is no longer a Touchet Valley competition. But Yokel is hoping soon there will be a local girl who will compete in the contest's at-large program so they can benefit from the $10,000 worth of scholarship money the program offers. The contest is held during the first week of August in Pullman each year.

Girls entering their junior year of high school can log on to www.distinguishedyw.org and click "Join Us" to sign up. Those interested in participating next year will need to sign up as soon as possible, she said.