Lumberton Native Wins National Pageant, Plans To Inspire Young Women Through Agriculture

LUMBERTON, NC一 A Lumberton woman took home the title of Miss America’s United States earlier this month. It took her several years to win the crown, which she hopes will empower other young girls and women through agriculture.

Nicole Hall has been competing in pageants for two decades, her first when she was just six years old in her hometown of Lumberton.

“I didn’t win at all. It was terrible; my mom knew nothing about pageants,” Hall laughed. “She had me in a JCPenney dress; I had these god-awful Shirley Temple curls so tight to my head, just terrible. But I got bitten by the bug. After that, I just kept competing.”

Hall won the 2024 Miss America’s United States pageant on Aug. 10. She brought home her first national title in 2023 as Miss United States Agriculture. Agriculture is Hall’s passion, and as a farmer’s daughter and a chicken farmer herself, she’s always run on the platform “Crowns for Crops.”

Hall is also a real estate agent. She said real estate keeps the bills paid, but farming keeps the soul fed.

“I am a daughter of tobacco farmers,” Hall said, “so farming is near and dear to my heart. I was raised on farm life.” During her time at Campbell University, she transitioned into farming alpacas. She worked with 22 alpacas on 20 acres of land, bringing them to grand openings, agro-tourism events, and occasional bridal parties visiting the farm.

“My show alpacas, Nibbles and Saybean,” Hall said, “walked better on a leash than some people’s dogs. If I stopped walking, they would heel.”

After working with the alpacas, Hall began working on a chicken farm, where she was responsible for eight chicken houses. She said 1.1 million chickens passed through her hands each year.

Hall’s overall goal during her reign is to promote local farms and produce. “I feel like people love to learn,” Hall said. “Many people don’t know what they don’t know, so I want to bust misconceptions and explain the processes we use to grow your food.”

“We’ve removed ourselves from farming so much,” she said. “Most people, all they know about food is they go to the grocery store and pick it up.”

Hall is hosting a farm-to-table dinner at Jireh Family Farm in Durham to promote North Carolina farms and agriculture. “They’re a more meat-based farm,” Hall said. “We’ll do a four-course dinner featuring chicken and goat, with a dessert. The whole thing will be raised and prepared on the farm.” Reservations are available on the Jireh Family Farm Website.

Hall is also starting a community garden on Martin Luther King Drive in Lumberton in 2025. She says it will be an excellent opportunity to bring local produce to the community.

She added, “I don’t think I’ll change the world, but my goal is to get people to consider before they consume. If you could stop for a second, maybe you’ll see that truck bed on the side of the road with some corn and some peaches; maybe you’ll stop just because you heard me talk about its importance.”

Hall explained that when she was a young girl, she was a band nerd, a drum major, and she had crippling anxiety. But that anxiety disappeared when she got on stage to answer questions about her passions.

“You get to learn what matters to you, your values, your ethics, and what kind of person you want to be,” Hall said. “When you’re told you’re a role model and have little girls looking up to you, you walk straighter and have much more responsibility. I feel like it’s shaped me and caused growth, even every time I was told no. It made me go back and work harder.”

Hall said she’s also beginning to train and pursue Miss North Carolina and Miss America, especially now that the rules have changed. It used to be that to compete, competitors had to be unmarried, a certain age, and childless.

Now, there are no restrictions.

Eventually, though, Hall hopes to start her own pageant system — Miss North Carolina Agriculture.

“I’m only one person, but if I had girls all over, the impact we could have in each county would be amazing,” she said.

Hall also wants girls to know that no passion is too niche, and they don’t have to change to fit pageantry. When she began competing, Hall said no one expected a farming queen, yet here she is.

Pageants are also a significant source of scholarships for young women. She said many pageant women have been able to pursue their degrees because of the scholarships they’ve been awarded.

She advocates so hard for pageants, adding that they have become much more inclusive.

“I don’t feel like there should be a look,” she said. “I would want an articulate queen doing stuff in our community, making a difference outside of just when she has the crown.”

SOURCE: The Robesonian; Jacksonville Daily News

Photos: Angelia Dean Hudson