A Lebanon County teacher whose pageant career began at the Lebanon Area Fair has finished among the top three at the national Miss USA pageant.
Liz Voight, competing as Miss Pennsylvania USA, placed second runner-up in the 75th edition of the pageant, held in Miami on Thursday, Aug. 27. The pageant was won by Justus Kelley from Virginia.
Voight is a first-grade teacher in the Cornwall-Lebanon School District and is pursuing a master’s degree to become a reading specialist.
A Northern Lebanon High School graduate who grew up on her family’s farm, Voight was crowned the 2017 Lebanon Area Fair queen, a title she has said set the course for everything that followed. She went on to be named Pennsylvania State Fair Queen, one of three Lebanon County women to hold the state title, according to Lebanon Area Fair historian Dana Lape.
“I grew up on a farm and didn’t really have any interest in pageants at all. I would always say I was showing cows and then doing sports,” Voight told LebTown in 2024. “Basketball was a huge part of my life, I really wanted to play in college. But then, it’s funny, I like to say, how God works. I was crowned the state fair queen and that kinda (changed) a lot of things.”
Voight, a Penn State graduate, has taught first grade at South Lebanon Elementary School, coached girls basketball at Cedar Crest, and worked as a professional model. She was first runner-up in the 2023 and 2024 state competitions before winning the Pennsylvania title.
She returned to the fairgrounds last month to speak at the coronation of the 2026 Lebanon Area Fair queen, Chelsie Bomgardner, during the opening day of the 70th annual fair.
“Like the young women here tonight, I dreamed of representing my fair, giving back to something that’s given so much to me, and I was honored to be crowned the 2017 Lebanon Area Fair Queen,” Voight said at the July ceremony.
The Lebanon Area Fair queen program, launched in 1988, has crowned more than 35 young women, who spend their reign representing the fair and promoting agriculture at events across the county.
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