Miss South Carolina Brooke Mosteller, front left, Miss South Dakota Tessa Dee, front center, and Miss Tennessee Shelby Thompson, front right, listen with other Miss America contestants during introductions after arriving in Atlantic City, N.J. on Sept. 3, 2013. Thompson has Chattanooga connections.It took Shelby Thompson three tries to win Miss Tennessee, and tonight she'll have one chance at the Miss America crown. The 2014 Miss America pageant airs at 9 p.m. on ABC live from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.
Thompson, daughter of Milton and Eunice Thompson of Brentwood, Tenn., is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and is enrolled in the MBA program at Lipscomb University.
Although the beauty queen lives in Brentwood, she has local ties. Her mother, the former Eunice Belew, is a graduate of Central High School and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She was crowned Miss Chattanooga in 1977 and was third runner-up to Miss Tennessee.