DECATUR, Ill. – Millikin University will proudly host a Miss America Send-Off Party for 2024 Miss Illinois Breana Bagley on Saturday, December 14, 2024, from 2:30-5:00 p.m. in the Bob and Debi Johnston Banquet Rooms on the third floor of the University Commons on Millikin’s campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Bagley is a Decatur native and graduated from Millikin in 2019 with a B.A. in Communications. She went on to attend the Southern Illinois University School of Law and is an attorney with Sandberg Phoenix Law Firm.
Bagley was crowned Miss Illinois 2024 last June, competing as Miss Land of Lincoln against 28 other candidates. She has spent the time since winning, traveling throughout Illinois, attending special events, and promoting her social community initiative.
The Millikin Send-Off Party will serve as a goodbye for Bagley, who will be off to compete for the crown of 2025 Miss America. The Miss America competition will be held in Orlando, Fla., in the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts from Dec. 31-January 5, 2025. After several days of competition, Miss America 2025 will be crowned on Jan. 5.
Bagley looks to become the sixth Miss Illinois to be crowned Miss America and the first since Urbana’s Erika Harold won in 2003.
The Send-Off Party program will give fans the opportunity to see Bagley’s Miss America wardrobe, hear guest speakers and performers, and enjoy light refreshments.
If you plan on attending, please RSVP by email with the number of people attending to MissIllinois24@gmail.com.
About Miss Illinois
Since its inception on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in 1921, the Miss America Organization has served to provide scholarship and leadership opportunities for women. Miss Illinois, the official state final to Miss America, was first held in 1927 and saw the crowning of Lois Delander. Though Miss Chicago had competed in the pageant since 1921, Delander was the first Miss Illinois sent to represent the state, and subsequently, she won the title of Miss America 1927. Illinois has since had four additional national winners, with Judith Ford (1969), Marjorie Judith Vincent (1991), Katherine Shindle (1998), and Erika Harold (2003), making Illinois one of the most successful states in the Miss America Competition.
