This year was last for pageant's retiring director Hoke

ARTHUR – The moments preceding the start of the Miss Moultrie-Douglas pageants are a flurry of activity: little boys jostling each other, young women dressing in a cloud of hairspray and nervous chatters.

There are trophies to arrange, microphones to check and contestants to direct on two sticky summer nights when judges choose the next Little Miss, Little Mister, Junior Miss and Miss Moultrie-Douglas. But in the midst of it all, pageant director Sandy Hoke is calm and efficient, even when forced to move the pageant into Arthur's high school gym because of heavy rains.

Also on this date

• Couple dies just a few hours apart at nursing home
• Mother Nature delays opening of apartments
• Apartment complexes have new owners
• FutureGen plant's money protected
• Canine partner Roxey retired after 9-year stint
• Kennekuk conservation education center plans unveiled
• Fireworks event at Harvest Moon drive-in canceled
• Vermilion County Museum quilt event open through July
• Attendance drop at Ford County fair blamed on no carnival
• Obituaries

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