Petal dentist crowned Ms. Senior America

Barbara Mauldin, a 61-year-old dentist from Petal, is not one to back away from a challenge.

"I don't want to ever look back and have regrets about things I never tried or attempted to do," Mauldin said by telephone Monday.

That drive for new experiences has led her to the title of Ms. Senior America.

Created in 1971, the pageant is for women who have reached the age of 60 or older, which is referred to by Senior America, Inc. as "the age of elegance."

"Sometimes older people seem to feel like they've been put up on the shelf, but they have to realize that they have to go out and grab life," said Mauldin.

"Life doesn't come to us, you have to grab it and go out and take hold of it."

One way Mauldin accomplishes this is through volunteering. She's done dental mission work in Peru, Nicaragua and Honduras and has also served as district governor of her local Rotary club.

It was a fellow Rotary club member Barbara Travis who encouraged Mauldin to compete in the Ms. Senior Mississippi pageant.

Despite growing up in Vicksburg, where dozens of young women have gathered each summer since 1958 in hopes of securing the Miss Mississippi crown, the July 19 preliminary in Picayune was Mauldin's first time as a pageant contestant.

She says husband Richard 'Dick' Mauldin was surprised that she had picked another adventure to go on, but supportive.

Gladys Hughes, a nonagenarian, and her daughter Bonnie Hughes, the directors of the Ms. Mississippi Senior America pageant, served as guides for Mauldin, who spent more than 60 hours developing a ballroom dancing routine for the main competition held Oct. 22, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Mauldin and her husband have danced as professional amateurs for five years, a hobby she took up after a happenstance encounter with a stranger.

In 2002, while working as a sea dentist for a cruise line, Mauldin was approached by a young man and asked to dance. When he told her, "I can lead you if you let me," she responded, "I have no idea what you mean."

Before the music ended, he escorted her back to her seat and told her flatly, "this just didn't work out."

"That made me feel a little less than successful," she laughed.

When she arrived back home, she informed her husband she was enrolling in ballroom dance lessons — whether he joined her or not.

What started as a hobby for the pair has taken them to competitions in New Orleans, Chicago and Connecticut.

With Dick unable to join her onstage for the talent portion of the pageant, she used his tuxedo jacket with coattails as a stand-in as she performed a Vienna waltz.

The set-up involved a coat rack and Velcro.

Mauldin recalled that the crowd gasped when she attached the sleeve of her husband's jacket over her shoulder and began gliding across the stage in a floor-length royal blue gown that tastefully highlighted her figure.

In an age of Photoshop and retouching, Mauldin doesn't hesitate to note that she has quite a good physique for someone who's over 60.

Mauldin says she wasn't a beauty queen in high school and she realizes the confidence she has now isn't always easy to obtain.

Goal-setting provided her with a way to focus on the tangible qualities she could improve.

"You can always remake yourself, but you should always be confident in who you are and who you want to become," Mauldin said of the advice she wishes to give young women today.

To contact Bracey Harris call (601) 961-7248 or email bharris2@gannett.com. Follow Bracey Harris on Twitter @braceyharris.