Wahoo native to raise scholarship money with bike ride
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By KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star
A 1954 Wahoo High School graduate
turned senior beauty and bicycling queen wants to raise
money for her alma mater through a 1,400-mile bike ride.
Patricia Eliason Starr, 71, who now lives in Santa
Barbara, Calif., is hoping to raise money for a music
scholarship at her old high school.
“I went to Wahoo High, this is how I got through school,
because someone cared enough to set up scholarships for
me,” Starr said. “Now I have found a way that I can give
back.”
Wahoo native Patricia Eliason Starr is hoping to raise money for a music scholarship at Wahoo High School.
She is biking 1,400 miles from Wahoo to Atlantic City, N.J., to raise the money and compete in the Ms. Senior America Pageant.
Donations to the scholarship can be sent to the Patricia Starr Fund, Greater Wahoo Development Fund, 640 N. Broadway, Wahoo, NE 68066.
Starr will embark Friday from
Wahoo High School and expects to arrive in Atlantic
City, N.J., on Oct. 9. There, she plans to represent
Nebraska in the Ms. Senior America Pageant to be held
Oct. 19-25 at Harrah’s Resort Hotel and Casino.
A professional musician and music teacher, Starr hopes
her journey will help promote music education in the
nation’s public schools.
“It just keeps getting cut and cut and cut from the
budgets,” she said.
But reports have shown music education helps children
succeed in all of their studies, she said.
It won’t be her first ride across the country.
In 2004, she pedaled 3,600 miles from Astoria, Ore., to
Portsmouth, N.H., to establish a music scholarship at
Santa Barbara City College in California. She is writing
a book chronicling the adventures of the ride titled
“Angel on My Handlebars.”
Neither will it be her first beauty pageant.
In 1957, she competed as Miss Wahoo in the Miss America
State Pageant in Nebraska, a contest she didn’t win. She
did win the Ms. Senior California title in 2006.
She said she’s looking forward to representing Nebraska,
and her hometown, in a national pageant.
“Who would have ever dreamt that I would have a chance
to represent Wahoo again?” she said.
Starr said she’s the only contestant in this year’s Ms.
Senior America Pageant planning to arrive on bike. She
said she’s worked hard most her life to take care of her
body and prepare for such excursions.
“I do believe in exercise and I do believe in eating
correctly and I do not smoke,” she said.
Alyce Parker, vice president of public affairs for
Harrah’s Entertainment, said Harrah’s is looking forward
to welcoming Starr with a big bottle of water.
“Patricia is showing us that seniors are healthy and
they are able to do wonderful tasks,” Parker said.
Reach Kevin Abourezk at 473-7225 or
kabourezk@journalstar.com.