Dawson member Kelly Jones overcomes illness to claim Miss Alabama crown

Most people who know Kelly Jones already considered her a winner before she was crowned Miss Alabama June 16.
   
But what many people don’t know about Jones, a member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Homewood, is that she is also a survivor. Less than six months prior to being named Miss Alabama, Jones was battling toxic shock syndrome, a bacterial infection that takes over the blood stream.
   
Reflecting on her crowning, Jones said winning the title after battling her illness the last week of January and competing in previous competitions was confirmation she was doing the right thing.
   
“It’s one of those things that you work really hard for and put a lot of energy into,” Jones said. “But God has a winner, God has a person in mind, and you never know whether it’s going to be you.
   
“And when they call out your name, it’s like ‘Wow, I really have been in God’s will,” said Jones, who has competed in the Miss Alabama Pageant four years. “All the prayers I prayed asking God if I was supposed to do another pageant — when you actually win it’s a confirmation that you’re doing something God wants for your life.”
   
Because she is 24, the age limit for contestants, this would have been Jones’ last year to compete.
   
“I really felt like God gave me an unusual strength,” she said. “He gave me a strength to get back on my feet a lot more quickly than the doctors had thought.
   
Doctors had told her that it would be March before she regained her strength.
   
“But I found it was a lot sooner than that,” she said. “It challenged me, too.”
   
Her illness would leave her hospitalized eight days as family and friends prayed for a speedy recovery.
   
“I dealt with it pretty good, but I was so ill that I was out of it,” she said. “It was hard on my family. I’m an only child, and you never would imagine that a 23-year-old would get that sick.”
   
Jones credited support and prayers as being instrumental in her recovery. Those associated with Miss Alabama also began a prayer chain for Jones.
   
“It was encouraging to know that there were people out there,” she said. “There’s a prayer chain that they all have and it had a ripple effect.”
   
Jones did recover and was successful in what was her last year to compete. And while winning is the ultimate prize, the new Miss Alabama said she was excited just to have an opportunity to compete one more time.
   
“I wanted to win, but I just wanted to be out there,” she said. “Winning was the icing on the cake.”
   
Her faith in God comes from a life spent growing up in the church. Jones said she was involved in the children’s choir and Girls in Action as a youngster, which most likely led to her passion of working with the children’s choir at Dawson.
   
Jones is also concerned with children outside of the church, adopting Boys and Girls Clubs as her platform as Miss Alabama.
   
“I worry about kids, because I think there is so much pressure put on them,” she said. “The Boys and Girls Club is a positive place to go and receive positive reinforcement.”
   
Her fame as Miss Alabama will offer Jones an opportunity to present herself as a role model, but she wants to make sure she remains true to herself.
   
“That would be encouraging, if I could be a role model to people,” she said. “But I’m just trying to be myself. I’m just trying to do what I know is right in my heart.
   
“I have a strong conscience and I know what’s right and I know what’s wrong,” Jones said. “You have to be yourself, you can’t put on this image for other people.”
   
Her tenure as Miss Alabama means Jones will have to change her plans for the next year. In September, she will compete in the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City and will be making appearances statewide both before and after that.
   
Jones had planned to continue her education this year by pursuing a master’s degree in music education at The University of Alabama.