PRINTBaby pageant dad goes from race cars to ruffles
Former NASCAR driver Ronnie White helps daughter Ellie take the stage
Caitlyn Emmett.
Ronnie White tucks daughter Ellie's blanket in his pocket as he helps her walk down the pageant stage.
January 27, 2011 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Ronnie White, 37, a former NASCAR driver turned trucker, just bought his first expensive pageant dress. Its specs match something a Disney princess would wear — a red-and-white bodice with a full cupcake skirt and 115 rhinestones — and he boasts that he paid only $400 for it. “It’s a pretty glitzy dress,” White says. “It’s the exact same dress you see the girls wearing on Toddlers & Tiaras but without as many rhinestones.”
But the dress isn’t for Ronnie. His nearly 2-year-old daughter, Ellie, will sport it when she walks the stage in the Little Miss Precious Sweetheart Pageant Feb. 12 in Kansas City. Ronnie, who lives 40 minutes from Kansas City in Spring Hill, Kan., knows the TV stereotype of children’s beauty pageants well. He had seen the shows such as TLC’s, which features spray-tanned children with fake teeth and hair in pricey sequined gowns, when his wife, Barbie, approached him about entering then 17-month-old Ellie in the July 2010 Little Miss Precious Stars and Stripes Pageant, her first.
Ronnie says Barbie, whom he describes as very feminine and an admirer of pink fluff, was the main factor for involving Ellie in pageants. His now 14-year-old daughter, Madison, who spent a lot of time with him at the racetrack and grew up a tomboy, influenced his decision as well. So did Ellie. She and her twin brother, Lake, were born prematurely at 25 and a half weeks, which led to some developmental delays such as Ellie experiencing trouble walking. Pageants might help build her self-confidence. And Little Miss Precious pageants are what’s termed “natural” in the circuit, meaning the judges evaluate the contestants based on interaction with judges and confidence.
Still, he was skeptical. “I’m not spending $2,000 on a dress for a little girl to wear twice,” he resolved. So, he made Ellie’s outfit himself and began the transformation into a pageant dad.
The sewing machine mechanic
Ronnie split his time growing up between West Plains and Spring Hill. His father and grandfather were truck drivers, and his mother owned an embroidery and upholstery shop and did tailoring. Barbie tried to make Ellie’s outfit first, but when she had trouble, Ronnie commandeered the sewing machine. In order to save money, he crafted a red, white and blue top and ruffled pants without the help of a pattern.
Still, when it came time for the pageant, he questioned his creation, as well as the decision to enter Ellie in Little Miss Precious. “We watched the TV shows, so I was super nervous because I had made her outfit and really didn’t know what we were going to walk into,” Ronnie says. “It was like walking into something that you can’t even comprehend. Of course, she’s my daughter, and of course I think she’s the cutest one there. And having made her outfit, I thought it wasn’t going to be good enough. It was extremely nerve-racking. I hadn’t been this nervous since I did my first professional race.”
Ellie turned out to be a formidable opponent. The tot took Grand Supreme — the title given to the contestant who scores the most points in the age category 0-4 years old — at Little Miss Precious. She has since competed in 10 more pageants, and though she hasn’t won any prize money, she has added a queen title, two age divisional wins and Most Photogenic to her Grand Supreme victory.
Ronnie’s homemade outfit made an impression on the judges. After Ellie finished her turn on the stage, one judge asked to take another look at her costume. He turned out to be Lorenzo Johnson, a pageant coach from MTV’s Tiara Girls. “He looked at it and was like, ‘For real?’” Ronnie says. “‘You sat down at the sewing machine and made it?’”
Although Ronnie has stopped making Ellie’s pageant outfits, he is still the ultimate pageant dad, and the oddity of his race car driver/truck driver/pageant daddy status isn’t lost on him. He operates on two tracks. One is owning his trucking business, Double W, and a few days before pageants, he switches into beauty queen mode.
Pageant day preparations
Pageant days begin at 7 a.m. with a bath for Ellie. Ronnie says they haven’t entertained the idea of spray tanning or putting eyeliner on Ellie, but they do paint her nails. “The whole spray tans and fake teeth and fake hair — I understand that’s part of a beauty pageant, but that’s not part of a normal 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-year-old,” Ronnie says. While Ellie sits on Barbie’s lap and watches TV, Ronnie paints her nails, the most difficult part of the process being persuading Ellie to hold still. Barbie dresses Ellie at pageants, which typically begin at 11 a.m., but the little girl latches on to Ronnie throughout the day. “Ellie is a big daddy’s girl and stays pretty close to me,” Ronnie says.
Ellie has trouble walking, so Ronnie helps her onstage. He thinks the pageant experience will help her develop positive self-esteem. “I hope it builds confidence in her so she can get up in front of people and talk or give a speech and not be embarrassed or scared or shy,” Ronnie says.
For now, getting Ellie to interact with the judges — or even just appear to interact with the judges — is the most important part of the pageant. Blowing kisses and waving always score big points with the panel, so Ronnie and Barbie practice with Ellie. While Ronnie walks with Ellie onstage, Barbie sometimes stands behind the judges’ table and tries to get Ellie to interact with them.
The show usually ends around 3 p.m. Once the pageant is over, Ronnie has to go back to thinking about the big rigs.
Even though she’s only a toddler, Ellie’s parents say she has fun at the competitions. They can be cutthroat, but it’s the parents, not the children, who make them that way. Ronnie says that if she ever wants out, they’ll listen to her. For now, she’s just enjoying being in the spotlight, made apparent by the fact that she cries when her parents take her off the stage. Before the competition begins, Little Miss Precious allows the contestants to practice onstage. “She was an absolute natural,” Ronnie says. “She loves to be on the stage. She’s not practicing anything. She’s just crawling around up there. She throws a fit when you go to get her. That happens at every single pageant. She never wants to get off stage.”
