Patsy Ramsey had been Miss. West Virginia in the Miss America pageant, and her sister, Pam, was a semi-finalist the year before. Beauty pageants are a way for Southern girls to make it big. Boys play football, girls enter beauty pageants early and often, so Patsy's grooming Jonbenet to follow in her footsteps andeventually win the Miss. America pageant was what this was all about. However, Patsy had John's money to play with and paid 4000 for costumes, and she hired Jane Powell to give Jonbenet voice lessons! She bleached Jonbenet's hair, had a plate made to fill in the gap from a lost front tooth, tattooed eyeliner on the child's eyelids...basically, Patsy was ruthless. Jonbenet was going to win every pageant she entered or Patsy would know the reason why. She never dreamed for a minute that pedophiles haunted the pageants. But pedophiles look like your next door neighbor, and they hide in plain sight and try to find ways to be around kids. You never see it coming.
According to Wikipedia (search on Miss West Virginia) Patsy won the title in 1977 and her sister won it in 1980.