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Colin Lee Edenso, 63, died Friday, May 2, 2008, in Anchorage, following a brief illness. He was born June 13,1944, in Ketchikan, and lived all his life in Alaska.

Rebecca Helen Stokes, 40, died May 3, 2008, in Kiowa, Okla. Born Rebecca Helen Searle in Kelso, Wash., on Jan. 14, 1968, she attended Stella Mayfield school in Elgin, Ore., and Schoenbar Middle School in Ketchikan, where she lived from 1981 to 1986.

Marguerite C. "Peg" Jacobson, 89, died April 17, 2008, in Ketchikan.

Clifford "Chegan" John Durgan, 82, died April 20, 2008, in Sitka.

Although Alaska's Junior Miss competition is decades old, its arrival in Ketchikan is brand new. When Bob McClory was asked to organize the event, which took place here earlier this month - culminating in a program in the Kayhi auditorium Saturday - he said he would accept the responsibility only if it were to occur in Ketchikan.

What a great idea. We hope others will follow his cue when similar opportunities arise, to see what they can do to bring events to Ketchikan.

And what a fun event it was. Ten beautiful young women from across Alaska took part in activities here all week long preceding the Saturday night show. Those included three from Southeast: Caitlyn Lewis of Ketchikan, Heather Halvorsen of Klawock and Sarah Jones of Naukati, all of whom acquitted themselves very well indeed in the competition. Lewis was first runner-up to Alaska's Junior Miss, Johanna Soderlund.

The young women took to heart the theme of the Junior Miss competition, which is to be one's best self.

Amid all the excitement of beautiful girls dancing, appearing in ball gowns, performing their hearts out and answering questions about social issues, it was almost possible to forget that the competition, at its heart, was for scholarships. Alaska's Junior Miss gets a four-year scholarship to the University of Alaska. She also has a chance to become America's Junior Miss. In 2007, the winner of the national competition in Mobile, Ala., received $54,000 in scholarships.

It's something for local girls to look into as they plan their futures. The experience alone will prepare them for the challenge of going out into the world as they finish high school.

What was especially heartening about the program was the full-blown participation by Ketchikan, from the arts community that performed and helped the young women do so, to the families who hosted the girls, to the sponsors who paid for the events, to the local students who did everything from perform to accompany the young women as they walked across the stage, to the judges who had to determine who of the 10 would go on to the next step.

And then there was the audience.

As usual, we were proud that Ketchikan treated these young visitors with the enthusiasm and love that our own children receive when they take school trips in the course of growing up here. (If you've ever sent a child to a race in Metlakatla, you know that whole community shows up to watch all of our kids race, and cheers them all on; ditto Prince of Wales Island communities, which lavish their attention on our young visitors.) Ketchikan cheered and laughed and maybe shed a tear at some of the performances, but surely each entrant felt appreciated by the more than 200 people who turned out for Saturday night's events.

Miguel Torres embraced his role as emcee with good humor and grace. And how much fun was it to see Alaska's Junior Miss for 2007, Ketchikan's Aimee McClory, jetting home from Florida for the weekend to pass the title on to her successor?

All in all, it was a fine beginning for Alaska's Junior Miss competition in Ketchikan. We hope it will become a tradition for many years to come.