About Town

Can Zara Take the Mrs. America Tiara? We'll Know Thursday

Mrs. Illinois is from Plainfield and is in West Virginia this week for the national pageant.

Thursday is the night we learn if the Plainfield wife who won the Mrs. Illinois title in February will take the Mrs. America crown. Zara Johnson, 58, who lives in the Lakelands subdivision, won the trophy for best costume for her monarch butterfly ensemble and beat out seven other women to be crowned the state's representative in the national competition. It's being held this week at the ritzy Greenbrier, a national historic landmark resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V. The pageant runs Tuesday through Thursday, with winners announced the final night. Johnson has been the office manager for Cicero's Development Corp., a commercial renovation firm in Plainfield, for more than 20 years. If Johnson lands the national title, she will be the …

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'Saved by the Bell' on 'Wheel of Fortune'

The Plainfield Fire Protection District firefighter won $8,250 on the game show, which aired Wednesday night.

At first, it didn't look like it was going to be Matt Deliberto's game. He went bankrupt not once but twice and stood on the sidelines as his two opponents piled up the cash solving three puzzles. But as they say, what goes around comes around, and nowhere is that truer than on "Wheel of Fortune." Bankruptcy ended up bedeviling Deliberto's fellow game players as well, not to mention the "Lose a Turn"card. And so while he may not have gone home the big prize winner, the 28-year-old Plainfield firefighter did pick up a nice chunk of change -- $8,250 -- from the "Wheel of Fortune" game on which he was a contestant. That show aired Wednesday night, and Deliberto watched it with about 20 family members and friends at the Tap House Grill in …

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Firefighter Competes on 'Wh_el of For_tun_' This Week

Matt Deliberto gets at once-in-a-lifetime shot to spin the wheel with Pat and Vanna; his show airs Wednesday.

Matt Deliberto doesn’t just like game shows; he’s “obsessed” with them, “addicted” to them, a self-diagnosed “game show junkie.” And when you get a chance to be on one, as the Plainfield firefighter will tell you, it’s an opportunity you don’t pass up. Last September, he got his big shot. When the “Wheelmobile” – yes, this is what they call the 39-foot Winnebago that travels the country seeking “Wheel of Fortune” contestants – pulled into the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., Deliberto was there. They liked what they saw, sent him to Chicago for a second round of interviews and testing, and green-lighted him to be on the show in December. Less than two months later, he was summoned to Los Angeles for the taping. How did he fare? You’ll …

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About Town

Plainfield Grandma Sets Her Eyes on the Prize: Mrs. Illinois

Zara Johnson will be competing Friday night for a chance to compete in the Mrs. America Pageant.

Three weeks ago, this Plainfield grandma had no idea she was the beauty pageant material. Today, she wants to wear that tiara home. “At first, I thought I’d have fun with it,” said Zara Johnson, a 58-year-old contender in the Mrs. Illinois Pageant, taking place Friday night on a runway Bolingbrook’s Performing Arts Auditorium. “Now I find myself wanting to win,” she said. Johnson, who’s worked as an office manager at Cicero’s Development Corp. in Plainfield for 21 years, never thought much about beauty pageants before last month. She never yearned to be a beauty queen as a kid. She didn’t make a point to watch “Miss America” on TV. It wasn’t until three weeks ago, when she was shopping for a gown for an upcoming gala, that a stranger in a …

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