Queen Esther would be a pretty good
candidate for the patron saint of pageants, think Lisa Stover, the current Mrs.
Virginia and a parishioner of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in
Fredericksburg. After all, when the king needed a wife, Esther and others were
chosen from among the most beautiful women in the land. After being pampered
and prepped for months, the king chose her to be his bride. “It was basically a
pageant,” said Stover.
As queen, Esther was in the perfect
position to save her people when they were threatened with destruction. As her
cousin Mordecai said, “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for
just such a time as this.” Stover, who first heard that Bible verse in high
school youth group, likes to think that, like Esther, her crown was given to
her for a reason — to help others. She wants to use her platform to talk about her
family and her faith in Christ.
Stover was born June 20, 1991, the
youngest of six children. She grew up in Idaho in an evangelical Christian
family. “My mom was a stay-at-home mom (and) she dedicated her entire life to
us kids. Family was her mission field,” said Stover. “She was concerned (with)
getting us to heaven and that always spoke to me.” Stover’s father worked
multiple jobs to provide for the family.
When Stover was 8-years-old, she found
herself unable to walk. Doctors didn’t know why. “After months and months of
tests, they told me, ‘Lisa, I don’t think you’ll ever be able to walk again.’
It was so hopeless not knowing if I’d ever have a normal childhood,” said
Stover.
The day before a doctor’s appointment,
Stover’s godmother prayed over the little girl. The next day, Stover woke up
able to walk. But she and her parents were still worried, wondering whether her
ability to walk would go away as quickly as it came.
“(The doctor said). If you can go do a
cartwheel, then you’re probably healed,” said Stover. “So I went out back with
my mom after the appointment and I did a cartwheel. I just remember that joy
coming over me.” Because of this scary time in her life, one of Stover’s Mrs.
Virginia initiatives is Cartwheel to Hope, a group “to build support for
families amidst life-altering diagnosis, disability and loss.”
After graduating high school, Stover
attended Boise State University, a place where she both fell away from her core
values and re-discovered them. Stover knew her partying went too far when she
found herself driving to Planned Parenthood to buy the morning-after pill.
“Being a woman who grew up in church and grew up believing abortion was wrong,
but in this lifestyle that led me to that point, I thought, ‘Who am I? What
have I become?’ ”
A few months later, Stover became
friends with women who, unbeknownst to her, were Catholic. They convinced her
to form a pro-life club with them and she became passionate about saving unborn
lives. “Students for Life of America had a regional coordinator who gave us
apologetics training and I just remember sitting there taking notes and notes
and notes,” said Stover. “I didn’t realize how many millions of lives had been
taken because of abortion.”
She also became more curious about
Catholicism. “Seeing these two girls I started the club with be so authentic in
their faith, standing up for their beliefs about life, unafraid of what people
thought of them, (that) spoke to me. They just wanted to make a difference,”
she said. Stover began to pepper them with questions. “Finally, one of them
said, ‘Lisa, there’s this thing called RCIA (Rite of Christina Initiation of
Adults). You should go.’ ”
After graduating from college, Stover
worked for Students for Life of America and continued to explore the Catholic
faith. Stover came into the church in 2014 and after seeing her conversion, Will,
a former high school debate classmate whom she later reconnected with and
started dating, converted, too. The couple was married in the Cathedral of St.
John the Evangelist in Boise in 2016. Stover moved across the country to be
with her husband, who was stationed at Marine Base Quantico as a Marine One
Crew Chief. He now works as a police officer.
Stover first began to compete in
pageants in college, and last year decided to compete in Mrs. Virginia. But she
was worried she wouldn’t be ready, as she had given birth to her daughter,
Brooklynn Elizabeth, six months earlier. Her mentor encouraged her to continue.
“She said, ‘Lisa, women compete pregnant all the time. This is what a Mrs.
Pageant is about. That’s showcasing you as a mom.’ ”
Lisa Stover poses with her husband, Will, and daughter, Brooklynn
Elizabeth, after winning Mrs. Virginia 2019. Amanda Lauren Photography
| Courtesy
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Stover said they unofficially dubbed
Will “Dad of the Year” as he spent most of the pageant trailing Stover,
carrying their still-nursing baby along with the diaper bag. Stover placed in
the top ten at the pageant and decided to compete again this year.
Family tragedy threatened to derail her
plans. In early February, Stover and her husband realized she was pregnant. By
Valentine’s Day, they were told she would lose the baby. “My husband came in
and I pretty much just crumbled in his arms,” she said. “Something people don’t
talk about is that miscarriage is essentially pregnancy, labor and delivery all
in (a short period of time.) I had these really strong contractions and then
went to the bathroom and saw my baby.”
A week after the physically and
emotionally devasting ordeal, Stover got a call saying her mother, who had been
fighting breast cancer for two years, was days away from death. She quickly
flew to California to be at her mother’s bedside. The day her mother died was
bright and sunny, interrupted by a freak hailstorm, during which she breathed
her last. “She was such a beautiful and holy woman. It was amazing to see
heaven say, ‘We’re taking you now,’ ” said Stover.
After the funeral and a celebration of
her mother’s life, the Mrs. Virginia pageant was a week away. She told her
father and siblings she would happily stay in California, but they all encouraged
her to go.
So she did. Alongside the other
contestants, Stover competed in the opening number performance, the panel
interview, swimsuit competition and the evening gown portion, where each
woman’s husband walked them onstage. “My mother-in-law had our daughter in the
crowd and when he walked me out I heard her yell, ‘Mommy! Daddy!’ I was like,
don’t laugh, don’t laugh,” said Stover. Visible shock, then gratitude, radiated
from Stover’s face as her name was called as Mrs. Virginia 2019.
As the state winner, Stover will compete
in the Mrs. America pageant in August. Win or lose, she’ll spend the next year
travelling throughout the commonwealth to bring attention to causes that matter
to her. As Stover put it, “I just know God can use this platform for so much
more.”