One of my favourite sections of the site (even if I’ve never settled on the perfect name for it!), a look at all the Miss Kentucky Teen USA titleholders who’ve gone on to compete at Miss USA or in other state pageants. It’s always inspiring to see where their journeys have taken them — whether they won a crown early on, competed once or twice and then hung up the heels or kept showing up year after year, showing persistence in their quest to walk the Miss USA stage.
Three Miss Kentucky Teen USA titleholders have competed at Miss USA, including Teen runners-up Tara Conner (2002) who won Miss USA 2006 and Kristen Johnson (2000) who was 2nd runner-up at Miss USA 2005. Lizzie Rovsek (née Arnold), Miss KY Teen USA 1998 & Miss KY USA 2002 was the swimsuit designer for Miss USA 2015.
Winner
1
Tara Conner (2002)
2nd runner-up
1
Kristen Johnson (2000)
Non-finalist
1
Elizabeth Arnold (1998)
2002
1
Elizabeth Arnold (1998)
2005
1
Kristen Johnson (2000)
2006
1
Tara Conner (2002)
1980s
0
1990s
1
Elizabeth Arnold (1998)
2000s
2
Kristen Johnson (2000), Tara Conner (2002)
2010s
0
2020s
0
States competed in: Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee
Winners highlighted in italics. Stats may be inaccurate, especially for the 1980s & 1990s as I am reliant on newspaper archives which do not list all contestants.
1980s
1
Tracy Marsee (1987)
1990s
3
Kelli Jones (1997), Elizabeth Arnold (1998), Lexie Kemper (1999)
2000s
4
Kristen Johnson (2000), Tara Conner (2002), Amanda Nunnelley (2003), Katrina Giannini (2007)
Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee
Winner
3
Elizabeth Arnold (1998), Kristen Johnson (2000), Tara Conner (2002)
4th runner-up
1
Amanda Nunnelley (2003)
Unknown
1
Tracy Marsee (1987)
