Desiree Disterdick, elegantly casual in jeans and a black blouse, seemed completely unruffled by the hubbub of activity around her.

As her husband puttered in the kitchen, her daughters Kaylee Ann and Alexandra were milling about before leaving to attend their first middle school dance. Outside on the deck, daughter Hannah ( Tennessee’s reigning Junior Miss) chatted on her cell phone near the patio table where her son William was settling in to entertain the friends who had just arrived.

“Do you guys want some popcorn or pizzas?” she asked from the doorway. “You’re going to get hungry.” They declined, and she padded barefoot to the sofa, where Moses the Maltese leaped up to sit beside her.

A not untypical Friday night at the Disterdick home. “I love Fridays,” the former local pageant titleholder and first runner-up to Miss America said. “We can relax, the week is over, and we don’t have to get up early the next day.” And so, with her husband off to taxi the girls to the dance, Hannah still on the phone, and the guys engrossed in their card game, she began to reminisce about her pageant days.

Before Miss America: She was Miss Chattanooga 1980, subsequently finishing fourth to Miss Tennessee “not having done anything of that magnitude before. I’d done the Fairest of the Fair, which was a one-night pageant where you showed up with an evening gown, put your name down on a sheet of paper, and competed. I won that when I was about Hannah’s age. After Miss Tennessee, my director wanted me to go back. It’s a coup for a director to have a winner.” She won the first Miss Hamilton County pageant in 1982, was named Miss Tennessee, and later finished as first runner-up to Miss America.

On changes to the Miss America organization and its affiliates: “The girls are more relevant today. They’re really on the ball – smart, talented, and trying to make an impact on their community. They’re involved with raising money for foundations and causes, but back when I did it, there was no such thing as a platform. Nobody was required to have one, so you really didn’t do anything of any major significance, just ribbon-cuttings and things like that. Miss America has also given the girls more freedom to be themselves rather than fit themselves into a cookie-cutter version of Miss America. They bring to Miss America and the title who they are as individuals. There are certain rules of pageantry that girls still follow, but they have more freedom to be who they are.”

After Miss America: Although platforms weren’t required, Mrs. Disterdick created her own by promoting anti-drunk driving initiatives while serving as Miss Tennessee (“I’m very passionate about that”) and pursued a performing career. She competed for the Miss USA title, finishing as second runner-up and becoming the only participant to finish among the top five finalists of both the Miss America and Miss USA pageants, an accomplishment that’s only been duplicated one time since. “Miss America has more relevance for me. It involves talent, and Miss USA doesn’t have a talent contest.” After finishing her degree at UTC, she moved to California where she lived for 10 years and “had nothing to do with pageantry whatsoever.” She appeared in television commercials, worked as a singer (“Music carried me into a lot of venues”), and married before returning to Chattanooga.

Her husband: John Disterdick. They met in California and have been married for 20 years. “He loved Chattanooga – the lakes, the mountains, and how hospitable it seemed to be. Every time we’d come back, he’d say, ‘This place is great. Everyone is so relaxed.”

Her children: Four daughters and one son. Johnna, also a past pageant participant, is at college, Hannah is a senior at Soddy Daisy High School, and Kaylee Ann and Alexandra attend Loftis Middle School. William also attends Soddy Daisy High, where this year he became the school’s first singles player to advance to the state tennis tournament.

Daughter Hannah as Tennessee’s Junior Miss: “It was a surprise when she wanted to do it. Hannah is not a stereotypical beauty queen. Tennessee Junior Miss makes you think of someone smiling all the time, but Hannah can be very introverted and very studious. The Junior Miss program emphasizes academic strength, and that’s very important to her. I’m proud that she has taken it so seriously, put so much into it, and given so much serious thought to her role as Tennessee’s Junior Miss. She’s got what it takes to be America’s Junior Miss. We’re going to give it 110 percent. It’s a huge opportunity for her to earn scholarships, which, with five kids, would come in handy.”

Advice she’d offer to aspiring pageant participants: “The same thing I said to Hannah. Generally, take it seriously and give it 100 percent. Specifically, look at each area of competition, break it down, figure out what your weaknesses are, and work on them. Take criticism constructively, not personally. You tend to see yourself in a way that is not realistic. You’ve been a certain way so long that you don’t realize how you come off. It’s good to let someone else make an honest assessment of you.”

For leisure: Cooking (“I just made two dozen chocolate chip cookies Hannah needed for school.”), running (“I’m really big into fitness. It’s my anti-drug.”), and reading.

How she describes herself: “I think I’m perceived as more glamorous than I am. I really like simple things: family, good friends, and talking walks with the dog. I don’t think people see that in me.”