Lu Parker
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Frances Louise "Lu" Parker was born in Anderson, South Carolina. She attended the College of Charleston and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She then went on to receive a Masters of Art in Education from The Citadel. After graduating, Parker taught English Literature at North Charleston High School.
Her first television broadcasting job was for WCSC in Charleston where she was an education reporter and fill-in anchor.
[edit] Pageants Participation
After winning Miss South Carolina USA, Parker was crowned Miss USA in 1994 becoming the third South Carolinian to be awarded the honor. She continued on to compete in the Miss Universe Pageant in Manila, Philippines and was among the top 6 finalists, finishing 4th overall.
Initially, Parker was one of the front runners in the pageant placing fifth at the conclusion of the preliminaries. During the semifinal competition, she ranked fourth in swimsuit, sixth in the semi-final interview and seventh in evening gown for an overall semifinal placement of sixth. Due to a technical glitch a score of 9.729 was shown as her semi-final average to the television audience (Venezuela’s Minorka Mercado was the correct recipient of the said average score) and Parker’s semi-final average was 9.561.
After the final 6 interview one of the judges, Emilio T. Yap, failed to award her with any points. Despite the said judge failure to award her any points, the highest and lowest scores are eliminated and the rest are averaged.
At the end of the final six interviews the rankings are as follows:
1. Colombia
2. Venezuela
3. India
4. USA
5. Slovak Republic
6. Philippines
[edit] Life after Miss USA
In San Antonio, KABB-TV hired Parker to serve as a weekend anchor and reporter. Parker was promoted to main anchor in 2000. She obtained a job as the host for San Antonio's "Great Day SA" (Executive Producer Luis Munoz) February 2003 which is San Antonio's top-rated live entertainment morning show. In January of 2005, she joined Frank Buckley to co-anchor KTLA's "KTLA Prime News" on weekends.
Parker has made appearances on "Larry King Live" and E! Entertainment. She also supports the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).
[edit] External link
| Preceded by Kenya Moore |
Miss USA 1994 |
Succeeded by Chelsi Smith |
| Miss Universe Organization Titleholders 1994 |
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| Miss Universe Sushmita Sen |
Miss USA Lu Parker |
Miss Teen USA Shauna Gambill |
