Substance behind the smile

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, April, 2007 | by Diane Mastrull Inquirer Staff Writer

As the newly crowned Miss Philadelphia, Kimberly Rogers smiled easily for the camera yesterday in a hotel suite fragrant with congratulatory bouquets.

It was not, however, a proud morning for the city she will spend the next year representing. Since Rogers' pageant win Saturday night on the stage of Drexel University's Mandell Theatre, three more lives had been lost to homicide, boosting the city's death count to more than 100.

It was a development the 23-year-old resident of Richboro did not attempt to sugarcoat or dodge. Rogers said she considered Philadelphia's murder milestone "an exciting challenge" that is "pertinent" to her platform: preventing and eliminating depression among young people.

The city's homicide rate "gives me the inspiration to work harder...