Three girls to vie for 2025 Linn County Fair queen crown

The candidates for the 2025 Linn County Fair and Rodeo queen are, from left, Maddisyn Ernest, Kylie Freeman and Rebecca Miller. (Submitted photos)

By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – The race is on for three young women who have signed on to compete in the contest to be named the 2025 Linn County Fair and Rodeo queen.

Although fair board member Wade Teagarden officially released the names of the contestants on Monday, the candidates were already hitting their stride of selling advance tickets to the demolition derby on Saturday, Aug. 2; the Outlaw Truck and Tractor Pull on Sunday, Aug. 3, and the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) sanctioned rodeo on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 8-9.

They will also be selling raffle tickets for four rifles again this year. A rifle will be raffled off on the night of the demolition derby, the truck and tractor pull, and both nights of the rodeo.

Although the winner will be crowned shortly before the demolition derby starts at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 2, each of the women will receive a percentage of the tickets they sell.

The candidates this year, in alphabetical order, are:

• Maddisyn Ernest of La Cygne, 913-594-9291

• Kylie Freeman of Mound City, 620-224-7988, and

• Rebecca Miller of La Cygne, 913-594-0628.

Click on their names for links to their Facebook pages that tell where they will be selling.

By last Saturday all of them had been pushing ticket sales either at events or on their pages.

Maddisyn, 16, will be a junior this year at Prairie View High School. The daughter of Matthew and Sarah Ernest. She has played on the PVHS softball team and been a member of the school’s Family, Career and Community Leaders (FCCLA) program for the past two years. She also has a year on the school’s cheer squad under her belt.

She is active in her church, Living Proof Church in Paola, she likes to play and coach softball, hang out with friends, fishing, babysitting and shopping. Her plan is to attend college (hopefully on a softball scholarship), study to become an ultrasound technician, and using her earnings to travel.

Kylie is also 16 and will be a junior this year at Jayhawk-Linn High School. Her parents are Ebb Freeman, Kayla Soman and Beverly Freeman. She has been involved in the school’s FFA program and has competed in dairy and poultry judging.

Active in the organization for young women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Kylie has participated in the American Legion Auxiliary for about nine years and has been honorary junior president (for which she received two plaques), honorary junior vice president and honorary junior secretary.

She has played softball for nine years, and loves to watch the game as well. When she isn’t working as a server at Mi Ranchito or attending school, she likes to fish, cook, swim, sketch, hike, camp and attend her garden. Her goal is to earn a teaching degree from the University of Kansas.

Rebecca, 17, graduated from Prairie View in May and will be attending Fort Scott Community College this fall to become a registered nurse. The daughter of Jeremiah Miller and Amanda Reed, she plans to then transfer to a university to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing. 

She became a certified nursing assistant in 2023 and has been working as a CNA at the Louisburg Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. She has maintained a 4.0 grade point average through her high school career and in a member of the National Honor Society.

A four-year member of the PVHS FFA chapter, she has earned Greenhand, chapter and state FFA degrees. She won district proficiency award in Beef Entrepreneurship in 2023, a chapter award in Beef Entrepreneurship in 2024 and was named a chapter Star Farmer in 2023. She is also active in the Louisburg Baptist Temple and has served as a Vacation Bible School leader, a children’s church leader and is currently a nursery leader.