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71 Year Old Beauty Queen Completes 1,400 Mile Bicycle Ride To Compete In Ms. Senior America Pageant & Raise Awareness For Music Programs In Schools 

Los Angeles: Patricia Eliason Starr, a 71-year old professional musician and music teacher, has completed a 1,400 mile bicycle ride over 25 days (Sept. 19 – Oct. 13) from her hometown of Wahoo, Nebraska, to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to compete in the Ms Sr. America Pageant on October 19-25. The journey served as a vehicle to promote music education in the nation’s public school system. Her immediate goal is to establish a music scholarship at Wahoo Public High School, from which she graduated. She credits local scholarships for helping her realize her first dream - a college education.

This journey began at Wahoo Public High School on September 19^th and took her through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware & New Jersey arriving in at Harrah’s Resort Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City where the Ms. Sr. America Pageant will take place. She was greeted by local government officials, pageant staff, bands and others.

Ms. Starr is determined to prove that age alone should not be a hindrance when one has a mission and a passion. Traveling across country on a bicycle has proven to be effective in bringing attention to the importance of music in young people’s lives. “Exposure to music helps children excel in other disciplines, like math and English, as well as develop a love for the arts,” she said. It helps that she has the inner and physical strength to withstand the rigors of such an undertaking and the beauty at this stage of life to compete in a pageant. She has earned her moniker "The Bicycling Queen."

Her first appearance in a beauty pageant was as Miss Wahoo in the 1957 Miss America State Pageant. “To be representing Nebraska in a pageant 51 years later, is a ‘Journey of a Lifetime’," she said. She won the coveted Ms. Sr. California title in 2006 and placed as second runner up in the national pageant in Las Vegas, NV. She will be the 2009 Ambassador for the Free Spirit Travel and Entertainment's 2009 HOPE campaign which focuses on Health, Optimism, Preservation and Enrichment. 

Ms. Starr is a concert pianist, singer and trombonist. She recently performed as piano soloist at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville,TN, in Laughlin, NV, and Branson MO. She was also featured in a performance of the Warsaw Piano Concerto with the Prime Time Band in Santa Barbara, where she has a home. This 80 piece band, in which she plays trombone, is affiliated with International New Horizons, an organization of 120 bands which encourages  music participation for the age 50 and older group  

In 2004, at the age of 67, she pedaled 3,622 miles from Astoria, OR, to Portsmouth, NH, to establishe a $1,000 music scholarship  awarded annually and in perpetuity at Santa Barbara City College in California. She is writing a book chronicling the adventures of the ride titled “Angel on My Handlebars.” It will relate the celestial help she received on those long, scary, lonely days. She hopes the attention she gets in the coming months will attract a publisher.

Ms. Starr attended Luther Jr. College in Wahoo, NE; the University of Nebraska in Lincoln; and graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln. She has a BA in Music Education and Piano Performance, and is credentialed to teach vocal and instrumental music in both Nebraska and California. She is married to Gabriel Gonzales, has one son, Michael Morgensen, two step daughters, Aisha Gonzales and Desiree Gonzales, and an eight-year old granddaughter, Savana.

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for more information visit: PatriciaStarrNebraska.com

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