Tara Conner - Year in The Life of Miss USA

Year in The Life of Miss USA

Immediately after winning the pageant, Conner moved into a Trump Place apartment that she shared with sister titleholders Zuleyka Rivera (Miss Universe 2006) and Katie Blair (Miss Teen USA 2006) during her reign. Her first week in New York included many media events, which included print interviews and spots on CNN Headline News, Live! With Regis and Kelly, and The Early Show.

On April 29, 2006, Conner returned to pageant host city Baltimore to make appearances connected with the Volvo Ocean Race, sailing on board the yacht Black Pearl. and then returned to New York, appearing with Miss Universe 2005 Natalie Glebova at the Invest in Our World Benefit on May 3, 2006.

In the first week of May she briefly returned to Kentucky for the Kentucky Derby and was a celebrity guest at the Mint Jubilee Gala, attending the event with fellow national beauty queen Jennifer Berry, Miss America 2006 (of Oklahoma) and former Miss Kentucky USA titleholders Lizzie Arnold and Kristen Johnson, as well as other notable beauty queens. After returning to New York, Conner participated in charity events and was participated in a photo shoot with official photographer Fadil Berisha.

On May 18, 2006, Conner rang the opening bell at the American Stock Exchange. She returned to Kentucky for her official homecoming in early June 2006. where she met with servicemen, with whom she posed for the July 2006 cover of Kentucky Monthly magazine, and volunteered with local charities.

On July 19, 2006, Conner appeared as a guest judge in an episode of the third season of the Bravo! series Project Runway. The contestants on the show competed against each other to create a dress for her to wear in the Miss Universe pageant. The dress was later featured in the evening gown competition of the pageant.

In August 2006, Conner met newly crowned Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera and outgoing Miss Teen USA Allie LaForce in California where they were involved with media events, before all three travelled to Palm Springs, California for the Miss Teen USA 2006 pageant. On August 15 LaForce crowned Katie Blair of Montana as the new Miss Teen USA, and Conner, Rivera and Blair returned to New York the day after the pageant. Later that month, Conner and Blair attended a number of high-profile parties in New York including a Land Rover event featuring Maria Sharapova, a U.S. Open Kick-Off Party, a pre-Video Music Awards party hosted by Ciara and Missy Elliott and another Video Music Awards party hosted by Nick Lachey.

In September 2006, Conner travelled to Boston, Massachusetts to promote the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure, as her predecessor Chelsea Cooley had done the year previously. She then travelled to Colorado to support the Cheryl Shackelford Foundation and to Pennsylvania to attend an event hosted by the USO of Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. In October 2006, Conner spent time volunteering with more charities, including Gilda's Club, Best Buddies, and Project Sunshine, before embarking on a USO tour to Italy and Turkey in November 2006, where she met her brother, who is living in Italy.

During Thanksgiving weekend of November 2006, Conner appeared on the Showboat float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, becoming the fourth Miss USA to appear in the parade. After attending the Miss Kentucky USA 2007 pageant and crowning Michelle Banzer as successor to her state title, she and Rivera travelled to Cannes, France and Italy where they made promotional appearances.

In December 2006, Conner should have celebrated her 21st birthday with a special event held at Pure Nightclub at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip near Las Vegas, Nevada but the event was later canceled because of the scandal.

Following her time in a rehabilitation center in Pennsylvania during December and January, Conner returned to the public stage in February and was interviewed by a number of news outlets. She made her first public appearance on February 4, 2007, when she, Katie Blair and Zuleyka Rivera appeared as models for Tadashi, a sponsor of the pageant, at a fashion show in New York City.