Miss McCreary Fest ’07 crown restored to DeYanna Owens

By JANIE SLAVEN<br>Record Staff Writer

September 03, 2008 05:55 pm

— WHITLEY CITY — The culmination of an often contentious public meeting of the McCreary Fest Board of Directors last Tuesday evening was a vote to allow DeYanna Owens to keep her crown as 2007 Miss McCreary Fest.
Before reaching that result, more details began to emerge about what led to the board's recent action to replace Owens with first runnerup Shana Ratcliff of Eubank.
According to emails provided to media by Tina Owens, DeYanna's mother as well as Fest board member, board president Shane Gilreath first broached the topic of DeYanna stepping aside on April 24, just days after she won Miss Kentucky Teen United States. Gilreath contended that holding two titles was a “conflict of interest” for DeYanna, who had apparently arranged to appear at a Somernites Cruise event as Miss Kentucky without getting first approval from the local board.
While the board was not inclined to remove DeYanna at that time, arrangements were subsequently made for her to contact board secretary Kay Roberts (who has since resigned) or treasurer Corinda Toy regarding her duties as Miss McCreary Fest rather than Gilreath.
DeYanna Owens continued to appear as Miss McCreary Fest but the tension was never fully resolved. When she learned last month that Gilreath had obtained a professional proof via the Internet for use on a billboard promoting the event “voted the #1 local festival,” DeYanna and her mother expressed concern over copyright and having to pay for the picture.
Gilreath read an email at Tuesday’s meeting indicating that the photographer had given DeYanna Owens “verbal ownership” to the image and maintained that her refusal constituted a breach the contract she and her mother had signed with him last February. He then initiated an effort to take DeYanna’s title.
The board met unofficially on August 18 at Milton’s Burger Hut. Though DeYanna showed up at the restaurant, she did not speak with board members. During the course of the meeting, Roberts resigned and after it broke up, Gilreath presented treasurer Corinda Toy and vice president Marie Gilreath in the parking lot with a document to terminate DeYanna Owens as Miss McCreary Fest. They signed the document there and another board member, Sharon Toth, signed it later. A fifth member, Tonya Bryant, refused to sign the document, and Tina Owens wasn’t advised of its existence until she received an email from Shane Gilreath on August 21.
Last week Shane Gilreath told The Record that he did not present the document to the full board for an official vote because he did not want to fight about the issue.
“This was the fourth meeting overall to focus on DeYanna,” Shane Gilreath said. “I did not want a repeat of the May meeting where I had only suggested she step aside.
“We’ve worked so hard to get the Fest back to where it used to be,” he continued. “I hate that this controversy surrounding DeYanna could detract from McCreary Fest. I love McCreary Fest; it is the oldest festival in the county.”
With the document signed by a majority of the board, Gilreath took steps to install first runnerup Shana Ratcliff as Miss McCreary Fest, featuring her not only on the billboard (which can no longer be changed) but on the event’s official website, www.mccrearyfest.com and in a pageant program that has yet to be printed.
On Tuesday, the remaining board members (with the exception of Bryant, who was not in attendance) acknowledged they were unaware of the changes to the additional promotional material.
Others spoke out, either in defense of DeYanna or to question the board. Royalty Pageants operator Monica King, who directed last year’s pageant, made clear that she never had a contract with DeYanna and suggested that such a contract should have been signed before the contest.
Regarding the billboard, McCreary County Tourism and Community Events Coordinator Adam Phillips questioned why the original photo wasn’t used when the board had already been notified of a release.
DeYanna Owens maintained that her concern wasn’t about the picture itself, just who owned it.
“I would have been honored,” she said of appearing on the billboard. “Why in God’s name would I have not wanted to be on the billboard?”
“I think we agree the billboard was not handled properly on both sides,” Roberts said.
Shane Gilreath offered to bring the matter to a vote but wanted to conduct it via secret ballot. Shortly thereafter, he left the meeting. Upon advise from former president Adam Phillips, the meeting continued with vice-president Marie Gilreath in charge. A motion was made by Tina Owens to allow her daughter to keep the crown. She, Toy and Marie Gilreath voted aye with Toth abstaining.
“I’m glad that people could hear my side,” DeYanna Owens said after the vote. “They had only heard his side. I want to say thank you to everyone who showed up to support me. Please come to the pageant [September 27] and see me give the crown away. I also really want to apologize for Shana being put in the middle…for what’s going on.”
While the board hoped to include Ratcliff in the pageant festivities, Toy said Friday she had spoken to the runnerup, who was understandably upset.
As for Shane Gilreath, he was considering his status with the board at press time.
“I have not officially resigned from the McCrearyFest Board, though it seems likely that I will do so in the near future,” he stated in an email to The Record.
The next McCreary Fest board meeting has been scheduled for this evening at 6:30 p.m. in the McCreary County Middle School library.

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