Alisia Brock (center) was crowned Greater Jefferson County Fair Queen for 2024 on Wednesday, June 26 in the show arena at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Also pictured are first runner-up Kaleigh Adrian (left) and Miss Congeniality Chloe Frescoln. (Andy Hallman/The Union)

FAIRFIELD – Alisia Brock has been named the 2024 Greater Jefferson County Fair Queen.

Brock received her crown and sash during Wednesday night’s Queen Contest in the show arena at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Kaleigh Adrian received first runner-up, and Chloe Frescoln received Miss Congeniality.

Brock said she was honored to be named fair queen, and that she enjoyed spending the day with the other two contestants. They all met at the Beehive Salon in Fairfield to get their hair done first thing in the morning, and then did their group interview with the judges. After that, the girls did one-on-one interviews with the judges, and finally they ate dinner with the judges, too.

Jefferson County’s new queen said she liked all the socializing, and that she didn’t feel too nervous, at least right until the judges walked in the room.

“It hasn’t been overwhelming. I’ve enjoyed the day,” Brock said. “I had to be a little more conscious of my body language because I was talking with my hands a lot, and they discourage that. I need to keep that in mind for the state fair.”

The queen candidates made their first appearance on the show arena’s stage wearing casual outfits, and then later changed into formal attire.

Brock graduated from Pekin High School in May, having participated in a large number of extra-curricular activities such as volleyball, cheerleading, soccer, track, softball, drama, speech, quiz bowl, FCCLA, FBLA, FCA, iStep, National Honor Society, band, and choir. When asked which of those was her favorite, she said performing in theater was her favorite thing in her high school career, even though she tried it for the first time her senior year.

Pekin’s musical this past year was “Beauty and the Beast,” and Brock played the role of Babette, the feather duster.

“You have so many people involved, people from the cross-country team, people from the volleyball team, people who don’t play sports, people whose only passion is theater,” she said. “It brings a lot of people together, and I do plan to do that at [the University of Iowa], and hopefully do musicals. I discovered my passion for it super late.”

Brock plans to study political science and pre-law when she heads to Iowa City this fall.

“I like debating a lot. I’ve been told all my life I’m good at debating, and that’s probably got to be my favorite aspect of the pre-law,” she said. “I listen to a politics podcast called ‘The Rest is Politics U.S.’, and that’s the extent of my involvement with politics.”

Outside of school, Brock’s hobbies include reading romance novels, and her favorite author is Colleen Hoover. Her family maintains a garden, and she likes to help with it by growing tomatoes, green beans and cabbage.

“My grandma and my mom like to garden,” she said.

At 18 years of age, Brock is already thinking about how to manage her money for the long-term. She has stock in four companies.

“My great aunt got me started on investing through an app called Robinhood,” Brock said. “I took $500 of my graduation money and put it in the stock market. I’m checking on it multiple times per day. It’s fun because it fluctuates so much.”