By BETH JONES
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   MARTINSVILLE -This wasn't the kind of hoity-toity reception where guests sip white wine and make polite conversation.

    This was a party, with a DJ and dancing and people getting down with their bad selves.

    "Everyone's smiling tonight and no one seems worried," noted Joan Ziglar, Martinsville's commonwealth's attorney.

    For sure, the people of this city have had plenty to worry about. The Pillowtex closing that left nearly 1,000 workers in and around Henry County out of work in July was just the latest economic blow for a region that has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs over the past decade.

    But, there has been at least one bit of good news this summer: Martinsville native Nancy Redd was crowned Miss Virginia in June.

    This party, held at the Piedmont Arts Association on Aug. 9, was a send-off bash for Redd before she traveled to Atlantic City to prepare for this Saturday's Miss America pageant.

    The area's crippled economy has made local residents especially eager to celebrate Redd's achievements, said Jane Leizer, director of Miss Martinsville-Henry County, the local pageant Redd won before competing to become Miss Virginia.

    "We've had so much negative," Leizer said. "We're holding on to this one little positive as hard as we can."

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    Martinsville does adore Nancy Redd.

    In recent weeks, the 22-year-old Harvard University graduate has been showered with gifts including a flag that was flown over the state apitol in her honor, a bag for carrying her crown and a key to the city. Deborah Barker, who teaches horticulture at Laurel Park High School, Redd's alma mater, presented Miss Virginia with a tussie mussie, a type of nosegay. The tulips in this bouquet, Barker said, represented the fame Redd has brought to Martinsville "in abundance."

    There have been so many gifts that Nancy's mother, Amanda Redd, isn't sure where to put them all. "We're going to have to add a room onto the house," she joked.

    Everyone from The Boston Globe to "Good Morning America" has clamored for interviews with Redd, but the Martinsville Bulletin was on top of the story from the moment Redd was crowned Miss Virginia.

    A photographer from the Bulletin took so many pictures of Redd that she began to worry she'd be featured in the newspaper every day. Fearing overexposure, Redd asked the paper to scale back its coverage.

    They didn't listen.

    "Obviously, we're not going to stop writing about it," said Ginny Wray, the Bulletin's editor. "It is big news."

    The biggest news, of course, will be Redd's performance in Saturday's Miss America pageant.

    Many of her fans aren't content to merely read about it in the paper. About 600 Martinsville-area residents plan to make the trek to Atlantic City, according to Leizer, who organized one of several bus trips taking Redd's supporters to Miss America.

    In addition to having lots of cheering hometown fans at the pageant, Redd will have her own marching band in Atlantic City. The Laurel Park High School band will play at the traditional Boardwalk Parade on Friday before the pageant.

    Spending $13,000 to send around 60 teens to the Miss America pageant might seem extravagant at a time when the Henry County School Board plans to close five schools. But the members of the school's booster club, who are footing the bill for the trip, believe it's an important opportunity for the students.

    "One of our goals is to see our kids experience things," said the group's president, Ardys Winslow.

    Soft-spoken Amanda Redd seemed almost startled by all the hometown folk planning trips to Atlantic City.

    "I don't know what to say about that," she said. "...It really did catch me by surprise."

    Nancy Redd said she thinks competing in front of so many of her friends and family will be inspiring - not nerve-wracking. But, Leizer isn't buying it.

    She believes Redd will feel extra pressure to win the crown. "She doesn't want to let down all these people," Leizer said.

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    The crowd at the send-off party felt certain Redd will not be disappointed at the pageant.

    Melissa Harold Lannom, Miss Martinsville 1986, said she knew it the second she saw Redd's picture in the newspaper after Redd won the local pageant. "I looked at my mom and I said, 'This is Miss Virginia and Miss America.'"

    Eleven-year-old Lashawnda Weatherspoon agreed. She seemed awed to be in the same room with Redd. "I think she's a marvelous role model and everything," she said.

    Leizer wouldn't be surprised if Redd makes it to the finals of Miss America. Her husband, she said, compares Redd to a rocket.

    "All you can do is hold on," she said. "You know it's going to land on the moon."

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    While it's been nice to have something to cheer about at a time when so many people are coping with lost jobs , the hard times aren't the only reason the community has rallied around Redd, her supporters say. Many of her fans have been hooked by Redd's gregarious personality.

    "The thing I like about you, Nancy, is you always have a smile and a hug," Ziglar told Redd at the party.

    Redd's hairdresser, Jaci "Butter" Webster, had a harder time pinning down the reason behind Redd's charm.

    "You have to know Nancy to understand what's going on with that," she said. ". . . The only thing I can say is people are going nuts over Nancy because she's given them a reason to."

    James Wilson, a Martinsville dentist, donated $250 to the Miss Martinsville-Henry County pageant to win the first dance with Redd at the send-off party.

    He explained her appeal this way: "Nancy has never had to force a personality."

    Part of the excitement around Redd can be credited to the fact that a Miss Martinsville hasn't won the state pageant since 1981, when Vicky Pulliam wore the crown. Unlike many other local pageants in Virginia, the Miss Martinsville-Henry County event requires contestants to live in the area. People are enthusiastic, Leizer said, because Redd is a "hometown girl."

    "She's representing the village," Wilson agreed.

    Even those who don't know Redd likely know someone in the family - and what they've been through. Nancy's father, Sammy Redd, committed suicide in 1986.

    At the send-off party, Renay Hairston, treasurer of the Miss Martinsville-Henry County pageant, told the crowd a story about the night she learned of Sammy Redd's death.

    "I remember thinking, 'What will happen to his daughter?'" she said and then turned to Nancy, who, like several others in the room, was beginning to tear up.

    "This is what has happened to his daughter," she said. "She has turned into a wonderful young lady."

    Hairston said she believes Redd would be proud of his daughter's crowning achievement.

    "I think somewhere Sammy is smiling," she said.

On the net:

   missamerica.com

   nancyredd.com

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