The Jamaica Star :: Entertainment :: Miss Jamaica World to change hands

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Owner of Spartan, Mickey Haughton-James, is parting ways as franchise holder of Miss Jamaica World.

Having been the organiser for the local pageant and training the girls to go off and compete for the last 32years, Haughton-James is pulling the curtains and looking for a new entity to act as franchise holders and organisers of Miss Jamaica World. He told the STAR:

" ... we've been doing it for a long time and I'm not a young man anymore. I like to pursue interests I like. We feel we've done a fairly good job but we feel it needs someone new for it to go to a new level. I want to see it continue to grow."

According to Haughton-James it had been himself and an assistant who had planned the yearly pageant so there is no one waiting in the wings to take over but there has been a number of potential organisations that have expressed an interest. He told the STAR that the new franchise holders will hopefully be announced by the end of April. In the meanwhile he said that there will still be a pageant held this year.

Spartan to stay connected

Haughton-James said, however, that he is thinking of continuing to train the new queens and may even sponsor a girl each year. "Spartan will always have a link with the organisation. The last three years we have grown from strength to strength with Terri Karelle, Sara Lawrence and Yendi Phillipps who is always out doing shows. The popularity of Miss Jamaica is tremendous in the diaspora."

As Franchise holder of Miss Jamaica World, Spartan has had two contestants, Cindy Breakspeare in 1976 and Lisa Hanna in 1993, who won the Miss World titles.

There have been other successes such as Sara Lawrence who won Miss Caribbean Queen and was in the top 10 and Yendi Phillipps and Christine Straw who were also in the top 10. Jamaica is among the top five countries that have won the most titles.