There were some familiar faces at the January meeting of the Northwest Knox Business and Professional Association at Karns Senior Center, but only one of them wore a tiara and a giant sash.
Miss Tennessee Caty Davis, a graduate of Karns High School and the University of Tennessee, spoke about her experiences since winning the state crown in June 2017.
“This is a wonderful person with a great story to tell,” said state Rep. Roger Kane, introducing Davis.
Davis has traveled 80,000 miles across the state by herself and spoken to more than 50,000 students. Sometimes she visits three or four schools a day.
“I speak to people from ages 5 to 95,” Davis said.
As the governor’s official spokesperson for character education, she talks to younger kids about respect and how no one ever really knows what another person is going through. With middle and high school students, her favorite group to address, she shares her own story about growing up in a family traumatized by addiction and suicide.
Davis has lost a brother, a father and a grandfather to addiction, and has numerous extended family members who have struggled with recovery.
When she talked to the students at her own school, Karns High, about her experiences, she said, “They were open to talking to me because I grew up right down the street. I’m not just some pageant blonde girl that wears a crown. When I’m vulnerable, it gives someone else permission to be vulnerable, too.”
She is also the state’s goodwill ambassador for the five Children’s Miracle Network hospitals across the state. Visiting children in this role often involves one of her passions: singing.
“They don’t get to see a princess very often,” she said, indicating the tiara. “If I can make them smile by singing Elsa songs all day, I’ll do it.”
By participating in Miss America and Miss Tennessee (she took the state crown on her fourth try), she was able to net more than $36,000 in scholarships and graduate from UT debt free. Her future includes graduate school. Her position has also given her a platform to speak on a national level about addiction and recovery.
Her reign as Miss Tennessee is up on June 23. She came in the Top 12 of the Miss America Pageant last September, and she says she doesn’t regret not winning the national crown, believing she was put in the right place at the right time.
“Success for me is being able to reach at least one person,” and she does that every time she speaks.
Attendees at the lunch time meeting included a who’s who of local candidates. Besides Kane, who is running for Knox County clerk, there was Bob Thomas, who holds an at-large seat on the Knox County Commission and is running for county mayor; former commissioner R. Larry Smith, running for an at-large seat on the Knox County Commission; Ron Rochelle, running for an at-large seat on the Knox County Commission; and Jesse Nelson, running for Kane’s seat in the state legislature.