Katie Stam Biography

Katie R. Stam is a beauty queen from Seymour, Indiana, crowned Miss America 2009.

Biography

Growing up, Stam was a 4-H member and showed dairy cattle at the Jackson County Fair. She graduated from Seymour High School and is currently a senior at the University of Indianapolis studying communications. She is a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Seymour, Indiana, where her mother teaches fifth grade at the Lutheran elementary school.

Pageants

Stam entered and won her first pageant at the age of 15. After winning the title Teen Jackson County she advanced to the Kentuckiana Pageant. She won the overall Kentuckiana title (a title won by several successful pageant winners) and advanced and won the national pageant and edging out first runner-up, Amber Seyer, who went on to compete in Miss Teen USA and Miss USA. According to Pageant.net, Stam made history as the first Hoosier to win a triple crown in the same pageant system starting at the local, state, and national levels. In 2009, she would tie her own record of a triple crown by winning at the local (Miss Duneland), state (Miss Indiana) and national (Miss America) level.

She returned to the local level in 2005, and won the title Jackson County Jr. Miss, taking home more than $9,000.00 in college scholarships. Following in the footsteps of one of her predecessors, Deven Wayman, Stam became the second young woman from Jackson County to win the Indiana Jr. Miss title and advance to the last televised America's Jr. Miss Scholarship Program. Stam finished the competition as 2nd runner-up, securing another $20,000 in college scholarships.

In November 2007, she won the local Miss Duneland title (Michigan City, Indiana). She competed in the Miss Indiana pageant for the first time in June 2008, and was crowned Miss Indiana. For her state talent she performed "Art is Calling Me."

Precompetition reality show

She and the other 52 contestants participated in TLC's reality competition show Miss America: Countdown to the Crown which aired in the weeks prior to the pageant show. The series was filmed aboard the berthed RMS Queen Mary and the surrounding Long Beach, California, area. Stam won the first round competition, receiving the first gold sash award.

At the conclusion of the series the American viewers voted for four of the eventual 15 gold sash winners. Those four, which included Stam, automatically advanced to be placed in the top 15 finalists in the actual pageant; the other 11 being voted by the pageant judges.

Competition

On the Tuesday night prior to the pageant Stam won a preliminary swimsuit award becoming her state's first preliminary swimsuit winner since 1994.

The pageant was broadcast live on TLC from the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 24, 2009. For her talent she sang "Via Dolorosa" despite suffering from a throat infection. At the conclusion of the live telecast, Stam was crowned the 84th Miss America. She succeeds Kirsten Haglund of Farmington Hills, Michigan, and is Indiana's first Miss America.

Her platform is "Passion for Service: Promoting Community Service and Involvement." On Thanksgiving Day 2009, Stam served food to hundreds of men and women at the New York Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter in the New York City area. While there, she wore an apron and cap.