Las Vegas Weekly

January 26, 2009 · 2:05 PM

Exclusive: New Miss America Katie Stam talks about the road to the crown, the year ahead and romance

By Robin Leach

2009 Miss America Katie Stam and her parents after being crowned Miss America.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

Just five days before she won the 2009 Miss America title, 22-year-old Miss Indiana Katie Stam was KO’d by a throat infection and laryngitis that made her hoarse! It was right before her crucial judges’ interview -- and, because she took prescription medicine for the first time in her life, she also lost a night’s sleep.

You would never have known that behind-the-scenes drama when her performance of the biblical song “Via Dolorosa” in the talent competition won her raves from the judges and a standing ovation from the audience! Now one of her first goals is to persuade newly elected President Obama to give up smoking for good!

In an exclusive interview with me backstage right after her coronation, the farm girl from Seymour, Ind., (population: 18,000) revealed a three-year-long romance with her fitness trainer boyfriend -- and why she’s not worried about holding it intact while she’s traveling 20,000 miles per month for the next 365 days.

Yesterday, Katie flew from Las Vegas to start her reign today with a New York City media blitz. Katie’s victory was the first for an Indiana glamour girl in the 88-year-history of the pageant. It was the first time that a viewer’s choice was selected alongside the judge’s picks -- and she went on to win! Katie answered the man on the street question about athletes being role models and not using sports-enhancing drugs. “We have a responsibility to be positive role models at all times. Anybody who is in front of the media has to set a good, honest, positive example,” Katie said.

Her first appearance this morning was on Fox News with Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson, Miss America 1989 who was in Las Vegas reporting this past weekend. Katie also appears today with Regis Philbin on ABC and on NBC with Kathie Lee Gifford. This evening, she is back on Fox on The Scorecard and Inside Edition. Tomorrow, she will appear on Fox’s Mike & Juliet and, in the afternoon, on Fox’s Bull & Bear. On Wednesday, Katie turns up on two more shows.

Katie travels to Florida on Thursday, where she will join our Vegas contributing photographer Tom Donoghue for this weekend’s Super Bowl. Tom has promised to wire photos from her Tampa activities with pregame star Faith Hill and halftime performer Bruce Springsteen. The Pittsburgh Steelers-Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl XLIII (43) spectacular, with Katie on the 50-yard line, will be broadcast to more than 150 million viewers in more than 230 countries.

Katie’s hometown of Seymour, known as “the Crossroads of America” because it’s the intersection of the north, south, east and west railroads, also is the birthplace of John Mellencamp. “I’ve never met him, but I hope that will now happen because I am a big fan of his music. I grew up with his niece, Laura, and we are still best friends,” she told me.

Katie says her morals and values were instilled in her as a child growing up on a farm where she rode in her dad’s lap while he drove the tractor. She fed the baby calves with a large milk bottle, and, although she never milked the family’s four cows, she did tend to the goats! One cow was named Miss Indiana after Katie won the state pageant last summer, and it was changed to Miss America for good luck before Katie flew to Las Vegas.

Farm life with jeans and muddy boots was a far cry from the pageant in Planet Hollywood’s Theatre for the Performing Arts. Katie wore a bare shoulder, white lace and bridal-looking gown. In the fitness and lifestyle contest, she wore a striking black bikini and posed as a star supermodel! A communications student at the University of Indianapolis, Katie won the pageant’s $50,000 scholarship.

When I chatted with Katie, she said that winning the pageant felt “like an out-of-body experience. I kept expecting to be one of the runner-ups. I would have been just as happy, but then it was my name, and I felt so truly blessed. I hope I can be the best Miss America ever.”

She added: “When I was 3 years old, I dreamed of being Miss America. We still have the family photo of me with a crown on my head. We held fake pageants down in the basement of my cousin’s home. We cut fake tiaras out of empty cereal boxes and put glitter on them! Before I left Indiana for Vegas, she gave me one of the cardboard tiaras from 18 years ago and had put Miss America on it as a good luck charm!

“When we were very young dressing up in make-believe Miss America, that wasn’t escaping from the farm and that life. I love those values, the ethics of hard work, love of family and love of God. The thing that attracted me to Miss America was the idea that there was this young woman who has dreams so big and that she could make them come true. It was always a kind of Cinderella story, but not in the fairy tale sense. This was always about being real.

“I am very realistic, and I have a lot of real goals and dreams. When I looked at Miss America, just living out all of her dreams she worked so hard for, it’s just an inspiration, and that’s what drew me to the program in the first place. I knew I could make my goals and dreams come true. Miss America has always been my greatest role model. Kirsten (2008 Miss America Kirsten Haglund) was my role model, and how fantastic is it that she passed on the crown and the responsibilities to me.”

It was Katie’s first year in the pageant world that led her right to Miss America, but it almost came to a crushing end when she was taken ill five days after arriving in Vegas. She had a throat infection that left her hoarse from laryngitis. “I’m one of those girls who doesn’t even take Tylenol for a headache,” she said. “I lifted up my hands and gave it to God. I was ready for anything because it was God’s will. I just believe God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle. It taught me so much about myself, my limitations.

“I went to a doctor, and, for the first time in my life, took a prescription medicine. I just wanted plenty to eat and plenty to drink to get over it. I had an entire night of trouble sleeping from that. I didn’t look at it as if my dream was going up in smoke. I looked at it as a challenge, but whatever happened would be God’s will. I know my voice was very weak and scratchy when I spoke with the judges, but then my voice came back and everything was fine when I needed it most.”

Katie also revealed that she had to watch from becoming too thin. “I wanted to put on weight,” she said. “I was drinking a lot of protein shakes. I even ate pizzas before the preliminary competitions. Fortunately, my boyfriend is a personal trainer, so he knows what I needed to do.”

I chatted with Brian Irk, who was born in LaPorte and now lives in Indianapolis. He and Katie have been dating for three years. I asked him about the year ahead. “I will wait the year out patiently. It is only one year in a lifetime. I wanted her to win this. She has my full support. I know I’ll be doing a lot of flying so I can intercept her during her free moments in faraway places, so we will have plenty of reunions together over the year. I’m very close with her parents, so I’ll also be spending a lot of time with them.”

Katie admitted to me: “My life has completely changed. Brian and I have been dating for three years, so it’s really wonderful and very serious. He is a real blessing in my life. I love him dearly. Brian is one of my greatest supporters, and he’s willing to make the trips to catch up with me whenever we can.

“We had a conversation right before I came out to Las Vegas, and he told me I want this for you because you want it. He’s such a great supporter of mine. This won’t weaken what we have. This will strengthen what we have. I am a great believer that if two people want something to work, it will work.

“I’m ready for this year, although I will tell you I am not totally packed for the next 365 days! We’ll have to get that sorted out over the next week. They’ll be shipping additional clothes and suitcases to me for a while!”

Katie already has one specific goal. “Watch out, Mr. President! I am going to make you stop smoking for good. I am going to sit him down and make him quit forever. I would love, love to help him kick that habit. I’m going to have to do some research before I call him up and try to help him out. But I will definitely give him a lot of encouragement. I would love to get with him and accomplish that.”

President Obama says he gave up smoking last year but slipped while campaigning. “I quit, but I fell off the wagon,” he told Tom Brokaw. Said Katie: “Hopefully, I can help him do it this time for good.”

When her reign ends and she crowns her successor in Vegas next January, Katie plans to return to school to further her education in communications. “I’m graduating debt-free! My goal is to become a TV news anchor, and I’d like to go all the way to the top with an anchor job in New York City at one of the networks!”

Katie, who was raised Lutheran but now attends a non-denominational church, added: “I have no idea what God has in store for me, but I am ready for the ride. It’s an incredible year. We have a brand new, first-ever African American president and a new Miss America. This will be a fun, exciting year ”

In the 7,400-strong audience were comedian Carrot Top, Venetian and Palazzo CEO Bill Weidner, Luxor President Felix Rappaport and Planet Hollywood head honchos Robert Earl and Tom McCartney, along with Planet Hollywood Westgate time-share king David Segal.

From my file of interesting coincidences: Katie worked as a hostess at Buca di Beppo in Greenwood, Ind., to earn money to help put herself through college. Robert Earl purchased the 88-location restaurant chain last year. The Miss America contestants dined at Buca di Beppo restaurant a week before the pageant, but it wasn’t until Katie won that the connection was discovered! Planet Hollywood honchos asked her if she wanted her favorite massive “Bob Evans”-styled all-American breakfast of pancakes, waffles, eggs and sausages to celebrate. Katie said she’d prefer to go off with her boyfriend and parents to Buca di Beppo for one last grand meal this past weekend before her yearlong travels got underway yesterday!

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