She is a brilliant woman. A registered nurse specialilzing in hemotology and oncology she has spoken all over the world. She has been recognized several times for her motivational speaking, and is perhaps one of most beloved Miss America's ever.
She is PRICELESS! The look of shock on her face. You know she had no idea she would win even though she deserved to win on her interview alone. One of the best Miss America's ever.
That's because everyone knew it was going to be Louisiana. Since they were both from Monroe Michigan and Monroe Louisiana you have to wonder what there's some confusion.
I love how Toni Seawright is the first to hug the winner. Mississippians are so kind and thoughtful, despite the bad reparation box we're always placed
Kaye-Lani won the title on her interview alone. It takes a special person to work with terminally ill people as she did. She's also the insperation for the platform issue that has been a part of the Miss America Pageant for several years now. She's one of the best winners we've ever had.
EXACTLY!!!! Also, anyone who watched that night, if you pay attention, right before evening gown, suddenly for the 1st and only time, the scoring system changes. Phil announced that talent is suddenly NOT 50% of final night score. Instead 25% each to prelim composite, and then finals swim suit, talent and gown.
One of my all time favorites--if not my favorite. I was there the night she was crowned and I met her the following year in the AC Convention Hall main ballroom at a VIP pre-party and she was every bit as personable, charming, beautiful and kind as you would imagine. She represented the best of what this pageant ever offered. Let's just hope they find a way to bring it back to AC and the Boardwalk. It doesn't belong in Vegas or Nashville or wherever the heck it is now.
I'm from Michigan and I was there too that night. I first met Kae Lani in Flint,Michigan at a parade. I also met her again at the awards banquet after the pageant. The BEST Miss America!!!!
Ditto...one of the best MA pageants ever. The level of talent was superb. All the top ten were winners, and beautiful. I picked Miss Louisiana, but when she placed second, I knew that Kay Lani had it. She must have shined in her interview. She was a great Miss America.
@Juliaflo agreed...and this was back when it truly meant something to be crowned Miss America and the girls actually worked for the title...that's why the tears of joy and look of happiness on the face as their names were called as Miss America!!!!
I wanted Miss Louisiana to win but I met Kaye Lani when she appeared in Philly for the Thanksgiving Day Parade while I was there in college. Gracious, Intelligent and a wicked Sense of Humour. She was a Hoot!
Still my all time favorite Miss Americas. I still have my autograghed MA photo of her she was kind enough to send with a Christmas card. She is such a sweet woman. I wonder how she is doing today. Anyone know?
She did an amazing thing adding the platform to Miss America. I remembered reading a lengthy article about the year of her reign in TV Guide. I didn't realize how statuesque she stood next to the others. I also had the impression early on that Michigan contestants had unique talents, like Miss Michigan doing karate two years earlier. She ultimately deserved to win. Great to see this clip.
It's nice to see the full clip of her crowning. I've only ever seen the small clip on Roger and Me. That's the only reason I know about her (I was born in 1988). She's awesome in the movie and seems like a great lady, I'm glad she won!
I am definitely a Kaye Lani fan and I was very happy she won. I was also satisfied with Louisiana's first runner up finish. Her talent was awesome. But what I did not get was Nevada's 2nd runner up finish. To me Florida, Maryland, Virginia, and Texas all ranked higher.
So, several things. First, about this finals night for this year and this year only. Although both Kaye Lani (swimsuit) and Patricia Brandt (talent) were preliminary winners- which of course winning a preliminary in those days contributed tremendously towards what was called the overall prelim composite score. So, each day won a prelim. Both were pageant veterans, in fact perhaps you could say Brandt had more national pageant level experience than Kaye Lani. Exactly one year before this competition, in a very in a much lesser known competition that I came across somehow on youtube, Patricia was entered in the pageant with the same set of dummy duos but to a different song. I'm not aware that kehlani had previously been in a national competition, however she had been involved with the missing pageant as far back as 1981. For some reason it's never been fully explained to the public, and you can see this for yourself if you actually pull up Miss America 1988 pageant and watch it in full. If you go to right before the beginning of the evening gown competition, Gary Collins makes an unusual and perhaps very faithful announcement. Something that had never been done before. He announces that he doesn't say that there's a change in the scoring from previous years he just pulls a card out and says "after this competition is over this is how the final competition scores will be broken down 25% from swimsuit 25% talent 25% evening gown and 25% carried over from the preliminary composite scores and then the new Miss America would be named". EVERY OTHER year, prior to and after until around 92 pageant, talent scores on final night competition was always 50% towards the final overall score that determines the winner. In addition, the preliminary composite scores carried over that are included in the final night score was also different for this year. For example the year before when Kellye Cash won, the preliminary composite score contributed towards 40% of the final night of competition. Of course kehlani has a very nice talent but she does make some very obvious to the eye mistakes with the poi balls- of course, that's just being a bit overly critical. However, when comparing to that of the extraordinarily unusual & versatile talent displayed by Louisiana in doing a ventriloquist act, that not only includes her own voice, but using two songs and two dummies, does a truly remarkable job alternating back and forth among 3 different voice ranges, and then goes one step further by including quite a heck of sustained yodeling in the voice of the male dummy. Had talent actually been 50% that night of the final overall performance, indeed it would have been a different winter. But it's hard not to imagine how the pageant would not have benefited so profoundly with the introduction of the mandatory platform requirement of all contestants during the year of her reign, which because of there being a nursing shortage the year that kehlani won and entered during all of her press conference talks and the times that you would go into corporate boardrooms or whether it was to a local rotary club of businessmen, everywhere she was going she was not only talking about this nursing shortage, but boldly would sit next to a corporate executive for example and talk about the needed for greater funding as far as tuition goes to incentivize and increase the nursing population. Within 2 months into her range she was called to the corporate office of then MAO chair Leonard Horn, to talk to her about what she had been doing and he was basically saying to her I think that you're on to something and I think that you're going to revolutionize and turn around this pageant and make it into something more substantive. She had no idea as expressed on an interview available on RU-vid as to what he was talking about until he finally blurted out you're talking about one specific thing everywhere you go and the national office is getting bombarded with not only donations increased donations for the scholarship foundation but questions as to how they can help and an increase in requested interviews to the point that kehlani was so overbooked she had to finish the rest of her speaking engagements after her and reign ended. One other thing that I want to make sure that everybody is very aware of. Considering or in consideration of the comment about the confusion regarding this nevada. I'm not going to say who the Miss America winner was in the 1970s that created the need for this but Miss America 1974, Rebecca King, after a particularly disastrous PR year by one of the winners and which it was clear that she didn't have very good PR skills Miss King heavily lobbied and ultimately convinced within one year that they mandate that the preliminary interview by the judges be scored and considered as part of the composite overall composite score that then goes into considering who the top 10 will be. So we have no idea because they don't show the videos of the interviews, as to how well miss Nevada did. She may have very well wowed the judges with her answers and that has to be kept in mind as far as who the overall winners end up being. Another confusion that leaves it always wondering why some people place and some people don't in the final five, is that not until the early 2000s did the preliminary evening gown scores not scores but was a preliminary evening gown winner announced. So when the preliminary evening gown competition at this year's pageant that were looking at now happened you have no idea how they judge nevada. Or any of the other ones. But it's still nonetheless included in that preliminary composite score. And finally just as to reiterate the importance of how relevant that preliminary interview score is, one no I can think of 2 years in particular in which the final five had two preliminary double preliminary winners. But neither of them won the pageant. Instead it was one by somebody and both cases who had a really decent talent but you could tell by the next year at the next pageant at how well composed that person was and therefore how well they must have done in their preliminary interview. See this is a job interview that's how you have to think about it. and if they don't convince the judges that they can perform the job and they're not going to do well on the interview score and then therefore that's going to affect their preliminary composite score. I hope that helps explain some confusion over the places in the final five.
I'm a lifetime Miss America maven and Kay Lani absolutely ranks among the top 10 (at the top of my list will always be Mary Ann Mobley for the most original talent and question-answer sessions ever and for pure magic with just the right touch of irreverance). Get the Pageant back in Atlantic City!
Great remarks about Mary Ann Mobley (who became married to Gary Collins). MAM was THE best Miss America of all time, and in my opinion, one of the most beautiful women on earth! Stunningly gorgeous. She sure did have magic, and carried it all her life. Lived in the same house, with the same address and phone number for nearly 50 years, I heard her say. That says much about her character, that she molded a terrific life, had a stable family and was content. RIP, you beautiful creature.
It is so funny to me that people look up to Kaye Lani so much. I live near Monroe, Michigan (her hometown)and have sort of grown up knowing her. I taught in her youngest son's pre-kindergarten class, and am in a way immune to her as a celebrity. It is wonderful tho, to see her in a different light and know how many people love and admire her! It gives me a whole new respect for her as a person!
I agree. Kay Lani and the regalness and grace to pull it off and we love her for it. I'm naming my first born Kay Lani...whether it is a girl or boy. LOL
Patrick Keenan True. In fact one of the pageant judges that year mentioned the fact that Kay Lani as the clear winner in the interview. There was no one within six points of her, including Miss Louisiana. That was surelyn the deciding factor in her victory Miss Louisiana was fantastic in the talent segment, but talent alone will not win the Miss America Pageant. It is the woman who can speak effectively. It is a public relations job.
@@patrickkeenan2515 dude Louisiana was the favorite and everyone knew it. So much so she had her own article in People magazine and in the National Enquirer just a few months later because everyone was completely shocked. Kehlani Rae rafko certainly a beautiful girl and I'm sure she was very smart but the fact is that award and Crown belong to Patricia Brandt in the state of Louisiana which has never won that frown in all the years it has existed.
@trinketbox1 I was just thinking of her tonight when I glanced at the pagent. I never watch them anymore. Thank you for your response. Im sorry to hear abbout all her tragedies, but am glad to hear she has her husband and kids. She deserves a happy life.
nightwish5401 I say the same thing. The Pageant belongs in Atlantic City and not Las Vegas. The Miss America Pageant was the only national pageant all of America watched each year. Now the popularity has swayed to the Miss USA because the women are more beautiful and TV production is exciting to watch. Also, many people think negative of the MAO for having an estranged relationship with Vanessa Williams and its been more than 26 years since her crowning. The should have made a mend by now.mend
@waynebrasler You SAID it. And back to one-piece swimwear--the selling point is scholarships. In my opinion, the skimpiness of the sartorial fare is one of the things that caused ABC to drop coverage of the Miss America pageant back in 2004, that, along with the reduction of the talent compettition.
Can anyone describe Kay Lani and not use the word REGAL? It is impossible not to. She was the last of real Miss Americas...when winning the crown meant something...a major accomplishment/ Yes, I agree the Miss America Pageant belongs back in Atlantic City, but the City, the MAO are in entanglements with Donald Trump (we all know he owns the other pageant) over this. But Kaye Lani is very regal here.
i know....its a 2 hour show now...back in i beleive 92 when i started being able to stay awake long enough to see it...the show was like about 4 hours or 3 at least! i miss them wining fur coats too...that was always so cool...
No in the 92 pageant it was still a 2 hour pageant show. I believe you might be confusing two things:. 1). At around that year for several years, an experimental one hour preview show was shown featuring interview segments of previous winners and their accomplishments since winning. Also, up until I believe the mid to late '80's, the 2 hour pageant was a live telecast from 10pm -12 midnight. By the time of Kaye Lani's year, I watched it in my college dorm room from 9-11pm. And finally, the ONLY time I am ever aware of a 3 hour pageant show, and you would likely have seen, was the 3 hour 75th anniversary pageant show from 8-11, with the first hour still a live telecast and still in AC, highlighted by about 40 previous winners celebrated on stage and serenaded magnificently by Johnny Mathis. That was the 1995 pageant when Shawntel Smith won as Miss America 1996.
just came across as a nice person from the get go. Back in the day when the Pageant got it right ... lots of comments this year it was fixed. Wonder if ? And for anyone who sez "let's forget what Vanessa Williams did" never, never, never ... she's the one who almost brought the pageant to an end. There, I was nice and didn't call her a bad name.
