Khloe Wiegers crowned Winnebago County Fair queen. She’s Miss Congeniality, too

August 13, 2025|By Kevin Haas|In 815 News, Local, Rockford, Top Stories, Featured, Rock River Current, News

Khloe Wiegers reacts to being crowned Winnebago County Fair queen on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Pecatonica. Elizabeth Taylor, the 2024 queen, pins the crown atop Wiegers’ head. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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PECATONICA — This year’s Winnebago County Fair queen won over both the judges and her fellow contestants.

Khloe Wiegers, a 20-year-old Western Illinois University student and aspiring lawyer, was crowned the queen Wednesday night and given the peer-selected title of Miss Congeniality for her friendly and supportive nature.

“It tells me she’s going to be a great queen because obviously the girls all love her, and the community’s going to love her, too,” said Kim Mathieu, pageant director.

Related: Winnebago County Fair begins 104th year. Here are some of the highlights

Weigers was competing in the queen pageant for the first time, but she took part in the Jr. Miss program for four years and was the 2018 winner of the Jr. Miss Winnebago County crown. She also won Miss Congeniality that year.

“I’ve made some of my closest, best friends here. I’ve been to so many weddings of women who have worn this crown and title before,” she said. “It’s just such an honor to feel like I am in the stages of becoming everything that I admired about those girls. I just can’t wait to watch myself grow because I just know there’s so much more growth for me out there.”

She said she set out to make the pageant environment friendly and non-competitive for her eight fellow contestants.

“It means so much to me that this was voted on by my peers, and that they feel like they can come to me and talk to me and ask me for favors,” said Wiegers, a 2023 graduate of Winnebago High School. “I’m so, so happy to be alongside all of these girls and I can’t wait to just bask in the glory later when I can get down there and give them all a big hug.”

Winnebago County Fair Queen Khloe Wiegers and Junior Miss Deegan Edwards pose for a photo Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Pecatonica. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

This year’s Jr. Miss Winnebago County Fair, like Weigers, was also chosen as Miss Congeniality among her peers. Deegan Edwards, a 14-year-old student in the CAPA program at Auburn High School, was chosen from a field of six contestants.

“I am so excited. I was the Little Miss when I was younger and I had the best experience for representing Winnebago County. Now I get to do it again,” said Edwards, an aspiring multimedia journalist.

Edwards was a Little Miss winner in 2019.

“I’m excited to be a good role model for my Little,” Edwards said. “I know when I was a Little, my Miss and Junior, especially my Junior because we were so close in age, she was a really good role model for me. I’m really excited to be able to be that role model.”

Wiegers said you’ll never know what you can achieve if you don’t face something outside of your comfort zone. She described embracing the pageant as “blooming in discomfort.”

Pageant Director Kim Mathieu is surrounded by current and former contestants on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, at the Winnebago County Fair queen pageant. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

Mathieu, who has worked with the pageant for 37 years and been its director since 2014, was honored Wednesday night as she directed her final Winnebago County Fair queen pageant. She’ll continue to help in the future in an assistant role.

Fair queens and contestants from years past filled the stage Wednesday night to showcase how many lives Mathieu has touched in her time running the pageant.

“It was very heartwarming to see so many of them come back and support me on my last pageant. It just warms my heart,” she said. “I’ll forever be grateful to them for letting me do this.”

Deb Runte, president of the Winnebago County Fair Association, said Mathieu has done everything from coaching contestants on their public speaking to teaching them to walk, selecting their wardrobe, “and really getting them developed into amazing young ladies.”

“She’s worked with some amazing young ladies and had some awesome queens place in the state pageant,” Runte said. “The final speeches that the current queens give, every year they break down in tears when it’s time to thank Kim.”