COURTLAND—Taylor Marian Vick, a 17-year-old from Courtland and a rising senior at Southampton High School, was crowned queen of the 2009 Franklin-Southampton County Fair on Wednesday.

A large crowd braved a steady downpour of rain to cheer the six young ladies vying to become this year’s fair queen. The rain mercifully broke to permit last year’s queen, Meredith Britt, to take her final walk across the stage and for Vick to be crowned.

“I love my hometown because of the sense of family and close-knit friendship,” Vick told the audience when she first took the stage in sportswear.

When asked what she would do to help her platform, which is to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease, Vick said she would “use word-of-mouth. That’s the best way to raise awareness about anything. It’s a very serious disease, and it’s really not taken seriously. Five million people in America are living with it today.”

Vick’s future plans are to attend North Carolina State University to study veterinary medicine, especially as it pertains to horses.

Faith Hunter Hewett, an 18-year-old from Sedley, was named runner-up. Hewett is a rising sophomore at Barton College in Wilson, N.C., and a 2008 graduate of Southampton High School.

Southampton Memorial Hospital and Manry Rawls Insurance sponsored the event.