1. Tara Elizabeth Conner was born on December 18,1985 and is an American model, television personality, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 2006 and has competed in the Miss Teen USA and Miss Universe pageants.
44 Facts About Tara Conner
1. 2.
Apart from her role as Miss USA, Conner has been employed as a model.
3.
Tara Conner was a featured model on the HDNet series Bikini Destinations in 2004, posing in Lake Tahoe.
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Tara Conner has held the titles Miss Kentucky Teen USA 2002, Miss Kentucky County Fair 2004, and Miss Kentucky USA 2006.
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In late 2006, Tara Conner became the center of a public scandal after she was caught drinking underage, using cocaine, and kissing Miss Teen USA Katie Blair at a New York nightclub.
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Tara Conner was allowed to retain her title, provided she enter a drug rehabilitation program.
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Since then Tara Conner has worked as an advocate against drug addiction.
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Tara Conner's family moved to Russell Springs, Kentucky when she was six weeks old.
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Tara Conner stated that she started resorting to drugs at the age of 14, when her parents separated from each other and her grandfather died.
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Tara Conner graduated from Russell County High School in 2004, and at the time of her Miss USA win was studying for a degree in business administration from Somerset Community College.
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Tara Conner won the Miss Kentucky Teen USA title in 2001.
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Tara Conner eventually placed second Runner-up to Vanessa Semrow of Wisconsin.
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Tara Conner returned to pageantry in November 2005 when she won the Miss Kentucky USA crown, and was crowned by former Miss Kentucky Teen USA 2000 and Miss Kentucky USA 2005 Kristen Johnson.
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Tara Conner was the third former teen titleholder to win the Miss Kentucky USA title, others being Johnson and Elizabeth Arnold, who held the teen title in 1998 and was Conner's sister titleholder as Miss Kentucky USA 2002.
15.
In March 2006, while still Miss Kentucky USA, Tara Conner traveled to Los Angeles to tape a special episode of Deal or No Deal, which featured twenty five of the Miss USA 2006 delegates and reigning queen Chelsea Cooley.
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Tara Conner represented Kentucky during the nationally televised Miss USA 2006 pageant in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 21,2006.
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Tara Conner competed in the official BSC Swimwear Thailand for the swimsuit competition and made the top ten, where she competed in the evening gown competition, wearing a specially designed gown by Sherri Hill.
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Tara Conner then made the top five and completed the final interview round.
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Tara Conner eventually won the Miss USA title, the first woman from Kentucky to do so.
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Tara Conner was crowned by previous titleholder Chelsea Cooley, from North Carolina.
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Tara Conner was the fourth former Miss Teen USA state titleholder to win the Miss USA crown since 2000, one of whom was Cooley, who was Miss North Carolina Teen USA 2000.
22.
Tara Conner represented the United States at the Miss Universe 2006 pageant in Los Angeles on July 23,2006.
23.
Tara Conner made the initial cut of 20 delegates and went on to compete in the swimsuit competition, and as a member of the top ten, competed in evening gown, wearing a dress designed by Kayne Gillaspie, a contestant on reality television show Project Runway Season 3.
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Tara Conner is only the fifth Miss USA to finish fourth Runner-up at Miss Universe.
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Immediately after winning the pageant, Tara Conner moved into a Trump Place apartment that she shared with sister titleholders Zuleyka Rivera and Katie Blair during her reign.
26.
On May 18,2006, Tara Conner rang the opening bell at the American Stock Exchange.
27.
Tara Conner returned to Kentucky for her official homecoming in early June 2006.
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In September 2006, Conner traveled 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.
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Tara Conner 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.
30.
In October 2006, Tara 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.
31.
In December 2006, Tara 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 ongoing scandal.
32.
Tara Conner 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.
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Tara Conner appeared in the television show Pageant Place, where she confronted Katie Blair over rumours.
34.
The edition of December 16,2006, of the New York Daily News reported Tara Conner had tested positive for cocaine, had kissed Miss Teen USA Katie Blair in public, and had sneaked men into their Trump Place apartment.
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Tara Conner just went wild when she came to the city.
36.
On December 19,2006, the day after her 21st birthday, Trump held a press conference saying that Tara Conner was not dethroned as Miss USA.
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Tara Conner currently serves as a Public Advocacy Consultant for Caron Treatment Centers, sharing her journey of recovery with others and being an advocate for those whose lives have been impacted by addiction.
38.
Tara Conner appeared on the 2007 MTV reality show Pageant Place as the surprise fourth roommate to the 2007 Miss Universe Organization pageant winners Miss Universe Riyo Mori, Miss USA Rachel Smith, and Miss Teen USA Hilary Cruz as they live together in an apartment in New York City.
39.
For MTV's Spring Break 2008, Tara Conner appeared with comedian Dan Levy in Pretty Smart, a competition challenging contestants to figure out who among a group of attractive men and women "offers more than just a pretty face" and has "a brain to match".
40.
Tara Conner was a contestant on the third season of CMT's Gone Country, which premiered in January 2009.
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Tara Conner hosted the first and only season of MTV's The Girls of Hedsor Hall, which premiered in February 2009.
42.
Tara Conner was a judge at the Miss USA 2010 pageant, held on May 16,2010.
43.
Tara Conner visited Syosset High School on June 6,2013, to talk to graduating seniors about the negative effects of substance abuse.
44.
Tara Conner formerly was Field Host on the Amazing America with Sarah Palin program which aired on the Sportsman Channel.