Kimberly Aiken Cockerham: Life beneath the crown

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In 1993, Kimberly Aiken made headlines as the first African-American Miss South Carolina. She would similarly cement her stiletto heel in records in 1994 as the fifth African-American woman to win the Miss America name. She became most effective 18.

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Now, at 42, Kimberly Aiken Cockerham, a married mother of teenagers dwelling in suburban New Jersey, has many successes underneath her belt. After earning her accounting degree at NYU, Cockerham had a profession as an accountant, a small commercial enterprise proprietor, and a full-time mother.

“I’ve performed all of it,” said Cockerham. “For the majority of my lifestyle, I was a pageant winner; that has been the component that described my life. I was a teenager, no longer even two decades old had no longer experienced lots of lifestyles before this massive factor passed off to me. It became a defining moment in my lifestyle, something I suppose so definitely on. I know loads of humans have negative reactions to pageants, and I recognize that there are some younger girls and some families who have experienced terrible, but that become by no means my revel in.”

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Now that her youngsters are older, she handles the budget for her dad and mom’s health care business, is a board member for the Miss South Carolina pageant, and, in step with her platform from more than twenty years in the past, works with the Interfaith Hospitality Network. It’s a local group of church buildings that offer quick-term housing for households that have fallen on tough times.

“Dig deep and go lower back and do the matters you realize will make you a higher contestant, a better student, a better character. And a good way to make you more potent when you come lower back,” she said. “And if you don’t win the crown, all of this stuff you’ve achieved to prepare for Miss South Carolina are simplest getting ready you to be a higher younger girl for your profession and to your community.”

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Several said California’s pass appears hypocritical. In China, gay marriage is illegal, administrative center discrimination primarily based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace, identical-sex rape isn’t against the law, and the civil rights of LGBTQ human beings are not protected.
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