Dairyland Surprise: Wisconsin celebrates Miss America

Miss Wisconsin Laura Kaeppeler of Kenosha waves after being crowned Miss America on Saturday night at The Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. / AP

Written by

Meg Jones » McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Laura Kaeppeler didn't know she would cry. Otherwise, she would have used waterproof mascara. When the 23-year-old Kenosha native was crowned Miss America last weekend — becoming only the second Miss Wisconsin to win in the pageant's 91-year history — tears flowed and so did her mascara.
"Of course I realized I didn't wear waterproof mascara until after the fact. But it made that moment very real ...," Kaeppeler said.
Kaeppeler is much more than makeup, or evening gowns or swimsuits, though the Miss America pageant is certainly all those things, too. She is a poised, smart Carthage College graduate who won a preliminary talent portion of the competition by singing an Italian art song.
She's a Packers fan who jokingly told Aaron Rodgers on TV to call her.
And her platform, the issue that she made a part of her pageant campaign, was to be an advocate for children of incarcerated parents. It's a painful issue that's close to her because Kaeppeler's father was convicted of mail fraud and sentenced to federal prison while she was a teenager.
She plans to use the $50,000 in scholarship money to earn a law degree. But law school will have to wait a year. Meanwhile, she's got a full calendar.
"It's been a lot of craziness," said Kaeppeler, as she reeled off a lengthy list for her first week with the title that included numerous media interviews and a flight to New York. "Life has just been instantly changed."
Perhaps the only Wisconsinite who knows what's in store for Kaeppeler is the only other Miss America to hail from the Badger State. Terry Meeuwsen won the title in 1973 and remembers her younger brothers telling her about all of the cars driving by their De Pere home honking their horns the night she won.
De Pere put up a huge sign at the city limits heralding the community as the home of Miss America and when Meeuwsen brought her future husband home to meet her family, "we were about 10 miles out and I said, 'I need to tell you about something that's coming up on the right.'"