Miss America`s Parents Concerned

ATLANTIC CITY: February 12, 2002 — Trouble is brewing at the Miss America pageant. The reigning queen's parents say she's being mishandled, while state officials have voted 45-to-1 to reorganize the pageant's bureaucracy and finances. In an eight page letter, Katie Harman's parents say they feel they've been put in a position to lie to protect the image of the pageant. But, they say, they're concerned about their 20-year-old daughter and now they're speaking out.

Katie Harman may be Miss America, but her parents say she's not getting the royal treatment. In a letter to the pageant's board of directors, Glen and Darla Harman complain that pageant staff treats the family rudely, keeps them in the dark, and tries to stick them with bills.

"Katie is your Miss America," the Harmans wrote, "and I can't tell you how many times she is in trouble for things that are not her fault." Jean Magness is the director of the Texas pageant and the spokesperson for all of the state directors. She says that Harman loves her job and wants to work more, but allegedly pageant organizers lose bookings because they're rude to clients and don't return their calls. That leaves Katie Harman with nothing to do. "She is sitting around," Magness says. "And when she is going from one destination to the next she could very well be in a location for four days just sitting in a hotel room waiting to go to the next place. "

And what about Miss America's free wardrobe? Her parents say she got yelled at after submitting an $800 bill to alter the clothes. And the pageant reportedly sent Katie the bill for a party thrown for her in her hotel room the night she was crowned.

"Katie has gotten the bill for her party, and told that if this bill was not paid in thirty days that those funds would come directly from her pay," Magness alleges.

Action News has been told that those bills were eventually paid by the Miss America organization.

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Author: 6 ABC