Lincoln County’s Miss Hospitality Joy Powell is a familiar facearound Brookhaven because with her crown and title comes theresponsibility of serving as ambassador for the Brookhaven-LincolnCounty Chamber of Commerce.

Powell, the daughter of Ken and Sherry Powell, helps to promotetourism and industry in the county. She participates in many localevents such as ribbon cuttings and parades.

And now she is ready to represent Lincoln County in theMississippi Miss Hospitality Pageant on July 14-15.

Powell said the hospitality pageant and the responsibilitiesthat follow give her a good chance to develop and practice herpublic speaking skills, which she feels is a wonderful experiencefor her future career.

She said she would love to be an anchorwoman or correspondentfor a news station. Her dream job would be to work for FOX News,she said.

Powell, who graduated from Brookhaven Academy in May, plans toattend Mississippi State University where she will major incommunication with an emphasis in broadcasting.

“Through the pageants I discovered that I had good communicationand people skills, so I decided to put that to good use,” shesaid.

Powell said that although she feels it is important thatcorrespondents be sent overseas to cover world news, she would feeluneasy about traveling to a politically unstable country, such asIraq.

“I believe it’s something important that should be televised andbrought to peoples’ attention,” she said. “I would feeluncomfortable about it, but I know I would have to do it and bewilling to if it were my job.”

Powell can testify to the significance of world-wide mediacoverage. Her father recently spent eight months in the U.S. ArmedForces, and it was important to her to have access to news coverageof the area.

“When my daddy came home I was overjoyed,” Powell said. “I hadjust gotten homecoming maid, and I was so scared that my daddywasn’t going to be there to walk me down the homecoming court.”

Powell said she relies on the support she receives from hermother and hopes to live up to the standards she has set, shesaid.

“I wouldn’t get nearly as much done in my life if I didn’t haveher to help me and teach me,” Powell said.

Powell’s greatest ambition in life is to have a family, shesaid. And she hopes to do so in her home state of Mississippi.

“Having a family would mean more to me than anything, work orcareer. My family will always come before anything else in mylife,” she said.

Powell will compete against 35 other girls for the state title.The winner’s role will be to promote tourism and commercestate-wide.

The pageant will be held at the Saenger Theatre in Hattiesburgand is presented by the Hattiesburg Convention Center and Visitor’sBureau, the University of Southern Mississippi and the City ofHattiesburg.