For many Miss Peach Queens in Chilton County, it is their longtime dream to put on the crown. For Kayleigh Payton, her dream was no different. But it was how close she was on many occasions that continued to drive her, eventually landing her the 2026 Miss Peach Queen crown. <\/p>\n
Each time she came up a bit short, she wondered what one thing she was missing to get the crown. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, (the little thing was) to just not give up,\u201d Payton said. \u201cI am very hard on myself, so I just told myself, \u2018Don\u2019t give up, yeah you are in a competition, but be confident in yourself and happy with yourself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Miss Peach pageantry is nothing new to Payton, who competed in the Junior Miss Peach Pageant a few years and the Miss Peach Pageant last year. She was second alternate both times she competed in the Junior Miss Peach Pageant, and managed to rise one spot to first alternate in her first attempt at the Miss Peach crown in 2025. <\/p>\n
Now, entering her last year to compete in a Miss Peach Pageant, Payton wanted to take the final step. <\/p>\n
On pageant day, Payton woke up in the middle of the night interviewing herself. As the day began, hair, makeup and clothes were arranged, and the nerves began to set in for her. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour emotions are everywhere, but I told myself to just stay calm. I have prepared for this; I am ready for this, and just give it my all,\u201d Payton said. \u201cWhatever happens, happens; if God wants me to represent, I am ready to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payton felt like her interview went very well and loved interacting with the pageant\u2019s judges. Next, she did her walk, her favorite part of the pageant, and everything was going perfectly in her mind. However, she was trying to stay humble. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just did not know if it was good enough or not,\u201d Payton said. <\/p>\n
As all of the contestants took the stage, the names were read starting from lowest alternate, and each name that was said built Payton\u2019s nerves even more. It came down to her and one more contestant, the same spot Payton had been in the previous year.<\/p>\n
This time, she heard her name said first as the new Miss Peach Queen, and she dropped to the floor. <\/p>\n
\u201cI looked around and thought, \u2018Am I in a dream right now? Is this really happening?\u2019\u201d Payton said. \u201cThen Mr. Al (Headley) called my name \u2026 My emotions were all over the place, but just like all of my hard work paid off, and this was always something I dreamed of. It was a great moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Peach Queen Coordinator Michele Headley said every queen she has seen crowned has agreed that there is nothing better than hearing Al Headley read your name over the mic as a pageant winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many Miss Peach Queens in Chilton County, it is their longtime dream to put on the crown.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-298914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}