Barstow prepares to support its own at Miss USA pageant

BARSTOW — When Raquel Beezley walks onto stage representing California at the Miss USA competition in Las Vegas on Friday, she may not be competing in her home state, but if Barstow has anything to say about it, she’ll feel right at home.

At least 70 Barstonians and possibly as many as 150 have bought their tickets for the big night, according to Beezley’s mother Christine Parrish. They’ll be carting signs and posters saying “Go California,” and if last Saturday’s preliminary competition is any indication, Beezley may have the loudest cheering squad in the house.

“We were a little bit loud the other night,” Parrish said. “They were like, ‘Can you put your signs down?’”

At the preliminary competition, where about 10 of Beezley’s friends and family showed up to cheer her on, judges narrowed the Miss USA contenders down to 15 finalists. No one, including the finalists, will know who made the cut until Friday night’s final pageant.

Beezley has been in Las Vegas for two weeks preparing for the big day. There, she is sharing a room with hometown girl Miss Nevada USA and running the gamut of public appearances and rehearsals, Parrish said.

She has still managed to keep in touch with friends and family back home.

“She’s doing really good,” said Rachel Moorman, a longtime friend of Beezley’s from Barstow who plans to travel to Las Vegas for the pageant. “She says she’s having a lot of fun.”

“She’s confident, very, very confident,” Parrish said. “She’s in good spirits.”

Kris Watson, director of the Miss Barstow pageant, said she has been sending Beezley daily inspirational text messages with slogans like, “A woman who has confidence in herself inspires the confidence of others” and “What you do and the way you think makes you beautiful.”

Watson has known Beezley since she first entered the pageant scene at age 13. Since then, 21-year-old Beezley has won every title Watson has to offer, including Teen Miss Barstow, Miss Barstow, Teen Route 66, Teen Citrus Valley and Miss Citrus Valley, Watson said.

What sets Beezley apart from other contenders is her commitment, Watson said.

“It’s not that the other girls are not committed, it’s just that she has not lost focus,” she said.

Another longtime supporter of Beezley’s, Barstow Tire and Brake owner Leonard Purdy, has sponsored her pageant career for the past nine years. Purdy paid Beezley’s $1,500 entrance fee to the Miss California USA pageant, and she won the title in November of 2007, earning her the right to compete for the Miss USA title.

Purdy reserved several groups of tickets to the Miss USA pageant to ensure that Barstonians who wanted to go would have a spot.
“I wouldn’t miss it for nothing,” he said. “I’m all excited.”

Diane Hamblet is going to Las Vegas with her granddaughters, Nicole Gutierrez, 11, and Katelyn Gutierrez, 7. Beezley has been a role model to the two girls, who compete in pageants, Hamblet said. Their tickets were $100 each, but Hamblet said, “I think in support of Raquel we’d have paid more.”

People call Nicole “little Raquel” because of her close relationship with the older beauty queen, Hamblet said. They made the trip to last weekend’s preliminary competition, where Katelyn gave Beezley a shell for good luck.

Nicole, who started doing pageants at the age of four and met Beezley six years ago, said, “I would always look up to her.”

Some supporters are coming from farther a field. Andrea Ochoa, 17, and her mother Darlene Ortiz of Bullhead City, Ariz., will be rooting for Beezley over Miss Arizona on Friday. Ortiz met Beezley and Parrish on the Myspace social networking site and drove two and a half hours from Bullhead City for Beezley’s sendoff party in Barstow on March 22. Ochoa and Ortiz will join dozens from Barstow in Las Vegas on Friday.

“I connected with them right away, knowing that (Parrish) did pageants with her daughter, like my mom did with me and like I am now with my daughter,” Ortiz said.

Ochoa, who will compete for the title of Miss Teen World in July, said Beezley encouraged her and inspired her.

“I hope she wins,” she said.

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(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com

To watch:
The Miss USA competition will air on NBC, (Time Warner Cable Channel 4), Friday at 9 p.m.