Don’t be surprised to catch new Miss Dowagiac Gabrielle Dorman chalking her name on sidewalks downtown.
Her penmanship is suspect, and it’s what she remembers about seeing queens downtown at Easter.

“I remember how pretty she wrote ‘Miss Dowagiac’ in chalk,” Gabby said Sunday. “She had such pretty handwriting. I know I need to go and practice on the sidewalk. I don’t remember which one. She was blonde and had a big crown. I was in third or fourth grade.”
“She touched a little girl’s heart,” is how the memory resonates with Second Runner-up Devon Ownby. “I think the best part of this is going to be when a little girl comes up and says, ‘Are you a real princess?’ I always looked up to the girls on the float.”
Living all over because of her dad’s Air Force career, Gabby didn’t go to as many pageants as some of her competitors.
In fact, last year was her first.
The audience at Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center wasn’t privy to interviews judges Elisha Messner, Mary Stafanek and Jeff Alisch conducted the Saturday prior to the pageant.
“They asked about my job, my nursing career, role models and what makes a good one versus not a good one, what makes a good Miss Dowagiac and what makes me different from the other girls,” Gabby recalled.
Given that she works for Treemendus Fruit, we wondered about her puckering prowess when it comes to propelling a cherry pit.
“I’ve tried,” the professed “girlie-girl” sighs. “I can go maybe three feet if it rolls. Pit-spitting is not a talent of mine. It’s hard.”
“I would love to watch the Oscars,” she said, but medical terminology studies for a college class will prevent her. “I love seeing all the dresses on the red carpet and hearing their own opinions in interviews. That’s really neat. They never go by my predictions, so I stopped making them. I’m never right. I loved ‘Toy Story 3.’ I’ve seen it like four times already. Natalie Portman has a line (in ‘Black Swan’) about being perfect that was so inspirational.”
Her hero from history is Clara Barton, but for role models, “You’ve got to look for someone more in your community, like your mom, because that’s where you find strong people you can really look up to, versus celebrities and people in the media.”
Gabby’s gown came from Memories in Niles. “We weren’t even going to buy my dress that day, we just went to try and get an idea of what I was looking for. It was the third dress I tried on, and I didn’t even try it on because it was the dress I wanted, I tried it on because it was pink and poufy. Once I tried it on, it was the dress. My dad was so happy it was so easy.”
“It’s metallic on top and glittery on the bottom,” she said, “with pink underneath and gold on top, so it depends on the lighting. It looks more pink in my room. My little sister was so excited because Kiele had a ‘Belew’ dress and Savanna Lemon had a yellow dress.”
Usually contestants are secreted someplace backstage and brought out one by one at great suspense to the audience.
But all 13 lined the red carpet when the Final Five were singled out.
“I think that was even worse,” First Runner-up Shannon Keene said.
“In previous years, they knew before,” agreed Gabby. “You’re onstage and you don’t want to look disappointed if your name doesn’t get called. Even when there was the three of us, I still didn’t think I was going to win. When it hit my head my first thought was, ‘Are you sure?’ ”
“Our class is pretty close and supportive,” adds Second Runner-up Devon Ownby. “We’d all be happy whichever way it went,” said Shannon.
Though cousin Alyse Pellow, second runner-up to 2010 queen Katie Haneberg, who dropped by Dorman’s Sunday afternoon with her mom, “was very adamant that I do it because it’s such a great experience,” Gabby didn’t need convincing.
“I always loved the idea of Miss Dowagiac,” Gabby said. “I was born in Dowagiac, came back for fourth grade, came back for sixth and seventh grade and I’ve been here for junior and senior year. I love change. I loved seeing the country, but Dowagiac has always been home and these are my friends I grew up with. I’ve been going to church with Devon since we were tiny.”
Gabby has lived in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, New Mexico, North Dakota and Indiana, but unlike Judith Ivey, who lived a couple of blocks to the east, “I don’t think (acting) is the life for me. I love taking care of people. I’ve been doing job shadowing at the hospital in nursing and I love it. I want to go into pediatric nursing because I love babies and little kids.”
“I love to cook,” the queen says of another of her interests, though she credits her mom with being the true “chef” able to “make anything out of nothing.”
“I cook dinner probably two or three nights a week,” she said. “I can make homemade pizza, nachos, lasagna — you can’t screw it up because it’s just layering stuff. If I’m not cooking, my mom can cook any gourmet dinner in the world, but honestly, I love macaroni and cheese.”
Asked about her favorite book, Gabby replies, “This sounds so cheesy and so every teen-age girl, but the Twilight series (of four novels) is my favorite. Last summer I read ‘Girls Poker Night’ about friends and not having regrets in life.”
The thought of another Twilight movie coming out in November makes the whole court animated. “Devon and I went at midnight,” Gabby said.
“And it was so packed,” Devon adds.
“Because we moved so much, this is my first year of high school cheerleading,” Gabby said. “I was able to do football, basketball and competitive. It really clicked with me and it was the first sport I was able to do well. It was an amazing feeling and all of the cheerleaders are such great girls. It was a blast. Dowagiac’s competitive cheer squad actually got third place and they hadn’t placed in over four years. It was such a great year!
“I’ve tried sports — volleyball, track, tennis. It kills your spirit when the freshmen are so much better than you! You just keep going because you don’t want to quit.”
A “happy person,” Gabby drew on that aspect of her personality for her platform, “Positive Thinking.”
With her dad Jeff deployed overseas during middle school and early high school, “It was hard to lose my father because my dad and I were always very close. It seemed unreal, and at first, I struggled very much … This experience helped me to really understand how crucial it is to find the silver lining in every situation.”
Does such a cheerful person allow herself any pet peeves?
“Negativity,” she immediately replies.
“I cannot stand it if all people see is the down side of things. Certain people never, ever want to see the positive side of anything unless it’s 100-percent positive. I hate that so much, when you can’t see any good out of a situation.”
So in pursuing the Miss Dowagiac title and one in 13 odds of success, Gabby figured, “I looked at it as an experience. If nothing else came out of it, I get to know these girls I graduated with and I won’t look back with regret that I didn’t do Miss Dowagiac. I tried and gave it my best, even if I didn’t win. Every single one of the girls this year would be a great Miss Dowagiac.”
Crisis reveals character, and there’s a lot of cooperation and teamwork in close quarters compressed into a short amount of time as showtime nears.
“We’re all in computer lab first hour, trying to catch up on our homework,” she said of what contestants themselves refer to as Girls Club.
“With dual enrollment, I leave after third hour. I don’t even have lunch with people. I’m so happy with our court. Shannon and I got close because we were so close in odd numbers (Shannon, Contestant 1, and Gabby, Contestant 3) and I watched her because that opening dance number was so hard for me.
“I was more nervous in dress rehearsal. I think (her calm comes from) always being the new kid and having to put yourself out there. I’m such a bad memorizer, I have this picture show going on in my head” to remember her platform.
While, she has an older brother, Gabby is the oldest of the three daughters.
“It was like being the oldest,” she laughs, “because Cody is a boy and there’s a double standard. I’m a girl, so there’s much tighter security. It was hard being the one to break through, but I’m glad I could because now Chloe’s coming up and all of her friends wear makeup in middle school, and the rule in our house was no makeup until high school. She can wear mascara and it’s a big deal. It’s nice to be able to talk to my mom and mediate for them.”
“When I was little, my Daddy was my hero,” she said. “I thought he was invincible, like Superman, and could do anything. And he still is, but back then there was nothing my dad couldn’t do.”
Gabby rarely has time to watch television, but occasionally tunes in to “The Office” because “it’s always on late at night when I’m trying to fall asleep. It’s a great show and it cracks me up.” Another favorite was “Friends” because it was something she and her mom shared together on Thursday nights over popcorn.
She doesn’t play a musical instrument and listens to a wide range, from country and hip-hop to the Twilight soundtrack.
Classical plays softly in the background as she fiddles with her sash, which keeps sliding off the shoulder of her sweater.