MARK WAITE / PVT Contestants in the Ms. Senior America Nye County Pageant pose at the Mountain Falls Golf Club. They include, from left, Shary Jimerfield, Daisy Jackson, Rita DiDomerico, Pat Burnley, Lynette Schlager, Mary McGuire, Marilyn Morrison and Venita Frederick. Advertisement

Seven women will compete for the title of Ms. Senior America Nye County, during a pageant at 2 p.m. April 5, at the Saddle West Hotel and Casino.

The pageant is open to women 60 years and older. The winner continues on to compete in the Ms. Senior America Nevada Pageant in August at the Sun Coast Casino in Las Vegas. Contestants will be judged by their interview, talent competition, philosophy and evening gown competition.

Entertainment will be provided at the pageant by Elvis impersonator Johnny V and singer Tony Vicari.

Judges include Pat Smith of San Diego, Jody Walker of Las Vegas, and Pahrump residents Jan Jensen, Doug Shaw and Walt Turner. The pageant director is Scotty Winegar. Al Jones will serve as master of ceremonies.

Tickets for the show cost $10 and are available at the Saddle West, Sunflower Fashions, Kimberly Fashions and from any of the contestants.

The contestants include:

Lynette Schlager, who placed second in the Ms. Senior Golden Years USA Pageant in Pahrump last summer and last fall, then finished second runner-up in the Ms. Senior Sweetheart Pageant of America in Massachusetts.

Schlager designed a Web site for the Nye County Animal Shelter and participated in benefit shows and charities for groups like the American Cancer Society, the Moose Lodge and the Red Hat Society.

Schlager was a race car driver and crew chief, scuba diving instructor, showed horses for the California Professional Horseman's Association, was a ski instructor in the San Bernardino Mountains and had her own music production company.

For the talent show she will sing a cappella and do a dance ending with some gymnastics.

Rita DiDomerico moved to Pahrump three and a half years ago. She paints for a hobby and was the lot champion at the last Pahrump Fall Festival. She studied dance in Chicago and now performs with the Dancing Step Follies.

She will be dancing to the tune "Sunday In New York" in the talent competition.

Pat Burnley was an insurance broker for 20 years until she retired in 1995. She has nine children, 18 grand children and five great-grandchildren. Burnley was an accountant at the Tonopah Test Range for 10 years, is a long time Pahrump resident and now serves as the secretary for the Pahrump Library Board.

Burnley belongs to the Pahrump Cowboy Shooters where her western nickname is "Brandy Alexander." She will perform a one act play named Brandy Alexander, about an entrepreneur holding a gentleman's sporting house in San Francisco called The Golden Goose.

Daisy Jackson was a therapist for cerebral palsy patients and moved to Pahrump in 1989. She worked as a bartender and called bingo at the Pahrump Elks Lodge. Several years ago she was named Elk of the Year in the State of Nevada. Jackson will dance the salsa in the talent competition.

Mary McGuire was a Ms. Senior Nye County in 1996. McGuire said she had so much fun she decided to do it again. At the young age of five, McGuire was chosen Miss Los Angeles.

McGuire has been a Pahrump resident since 1964. She and her husband both worked at the Nevada Test Site, where Mary was the first female working underground. McGuire said she also functioned as the first humane society in Pahrump. She still rescues animals, bowls and dances with the Dancing Steps Follies.

For the talent show, McGuire will dance to "Mama Morton."

Shary Jimerfield won Miss Congeniality in the Ms. Senior Nye County 2007 Pageant. She's lived in Pahrump for 12 years.

Jimerfield sold time shares, a job that enabled her to travel throughout the West. She ran a mountaineering and skiing shop in Wyoming for 12 years. Jimerfield also worked for Las Vegas resorts like the Las Vegas Hilton, The Flamingo and the Tropicana.

She will enter the stage sitting on a moon, singing "Allegheny Moon."

Venita Frederick boasts she's a young 80 years-old. She was previously a contestant in the Ms. Senior Nevada Pageant six years ago.

Frederick got her start as an ice skater in a New York City production Hielo y Estrellas and traveled throughout the Americas. She then started dancing and later taught dancing and ice skating.

Frederick moved to Pahrump eight years ago. She still dances today, performing a fire dance at the annual United Way luau.

Frederick will sing the George Gerschwin tune "Summertime" and be stripping out of a costume while dancing a mambo.

Marilyn Morrison was a Ms. Senior Arizona 20 years ago who just moved to Pahrump and joined the pageant to meet people.

Morrison is a former real estate broker in Arizona. She moved to Henderson in 1989. Morrison helps one of her three children as a costume designer, a daughter who travels the world in her career.

Morrison will do a comical hula dance in the talent show.