WILMINGTON — The North Carolina Azalea Festival has announced Beth Troutman, Emmy-award winning television personality, as 2018 Queen Azalea.
Beth Troutman has spent nearly 20 years in the television industry, hosting local and nationally syndicated television shows and has appeared on the “The Today Show”, “Extra”, “HLN”, “Home & Family”, “Good Day New York”, “Good Day LA” and “Good Day Chicago.”
Along with announcing Troutman as 2018 Queen Azalea, the North Carolina Azalea Festival also announced invited guests Adrian Wood, Miss North Carolina 2017 Victoria Huggins, Chef Vivian Howard and Virginia Wright-Frierson.
Adrian Wood has over 50,000 followers and several million page views per month on her blog, Tales of an Educated Debutante, where she shares tales of the good, the bad and the ugly of her life as a mom of four children.
Victoria Huggins was crowned the 80th Miss North Carolina in June 2017. Huggins also received the Dana Reason Quality of Life Award, Preliminary Talent Award, and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Miracle Maker Award. Over the past five years in the Miss North Carolina Organization, Victoria has raised over $50,000 for her personal platform The Alz Project: Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and the Miss North Carolina Educational Scholarship Fund.
Vivian Howard is a chef and farmer who opened Benny’s Big Time Pizzeria in Wilmington and is featured on the television show “A Chef’s Life” on PBS. Howard won a 2017 James Beard Foundation award for Best Television Personality and was a four-time semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation Best Chef Southeast award.
Virginia Wright-Frierson is the North Carolina Azalea Fest official artist. Wright-Frierson received a BFA in painting from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and has had over 30 exhibitions throughout the southeastern United States and Italy. Her work is featured in museums, private and corporate collections.
