Blair Pancake, Miss Tennessee, performing during the talent portion
Miss Tennessee with a Phi Beta Kappa Key
When Miss Tennessee Blair Pancake completes her reign, she intends to pursue a law degree. Meanwhile, the Phi Beta Kappa UT graduate is throwing herself into good works—child abuse prevention and drug-free Tennessee are at the top of her list.
Pancake (Knoxville ’05) won the Miss Tennessee title in June in Jackson, Tenn. She’ll represent the Volunteer state in the Miss America competition, which this year comprises a series of television documentaries in addition to a pageant. Each documentary will feature seven or eight contenders.
“I’m excited about the new format,” Pancake says. “For the first time, viewers will get to see every contestant.” She’ll tape preliminaries in September, and the pageant will be held early in 2007. The new format has been likened to reality TV because viewers will see backstage footage and vote for their favorite contestants.
Pancake majored in anthropology with a concentration in archaeology. She says two of her favorite professors were Gerald Schroedl and Dave Anderson. She participated in a dig with them on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, and their work was featured in National Geographic. Her interest in anthropology persists, and she wants to combine her study of law with that field as well.
“I would love to do it at UT if I could, but I don’t think they offer that combination of law and anthropology,” she says.
The determination that took her to victory in the Miss Tennessee pageant was focused in a different area during her student days when she worked as a mail and research clerk in the UT alumni telefund office—“You know those people who don’t give money because UT can’t find them? I found them!”
Pancake entered the Miss Tennessee pageant because of its $10,000 scholarship prize. She’s committed to the service component of the Miss Tennessee title as well.
“A lot of people can’t see past the tiaras and evening gowns to realize that service is a major part of the job.” She’ll be Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen’s official drug free Tennessee spokesperson, traveling throughout the state talking to school groups and others.
“Last year Miss Tennessee went to about 60 of Tennessee’s 95 counties,” she says. “I want to do better than that.”
She’ll also use the position as a forum for her personal passion—child abuse prevention.
“I got interested in child abuse prevention when I was in high school and tutored children from the Boys and Girls Clubs. Getting help for one of those children got me involved.” Playing on her distinctive surname, she’s holding a series of Pancake breakfasts throughout the state to build support for the cause.
Pancake is the daughter of two UT graduates—dad Bruce Pancake (Knoxville ’75, Health Science Center ’79), is a Chattanooga plastic surgeon. Blair’s mom, Debbie Eakins Pancake, is a 1979 pharmacy graduate.
So far, the new Miss Tennessee says, her schedule has been “jam packed” with public appearances, tapings, and travel. She’s keeping her eye on the prize, the scholarship money that will take her back to college when her year in the spotlight ends.
