Mrs. America contestant bitten on foot by rattlesnake

While walking to a rehearsal Sunday morning, Christina Ryan — Mrs. Tennessee — said she caught sight of a spider on an outside staircase at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. She jumped away from it and was bitten by a rattlesnake.

The snake bit her right foot, just above her toe, and at first it just felt like a sting, she said.

"As time went on, the pain just got worse and worse," Ryan said.

The spider wasn't very big, she said, and she would've been better off had she not panicked when she saw it. Ryan said she only a got a quick look at the snake because she didn't stay near it for too long.

Ryan spent about 15 hours in the hospital and received 10 vials of antivenin — made in Tennessee, she said — before being released.

The bite hasn't deterred her from her goal of becoming Mrs. America, though. Now she's working on walking in heels on the swollen foot.

Interviews for the contestants will be held Saturday, with preliminary competition Sunday and the Mrs. America finals Sept. 5.

Bob Johnson, the resort's managing director, said this is the first snakebite he's seen in the four years he's worked there.

The chief engineer, who has worked at the resort since it opened 24 years ago, told Johnson only one other guest has been bitten by a rattlesnake.

Still, the resort tries to educate its guests about the sometimes-dangerous desert wildlife.

"We're set right at the base of the Catalina Mountains, and we will get some critters," Johnson said.

Ryan said the resort's staffers were helpful throughout the ordeal. And Johnson added the rattlesnake was escorted off the property.

DID YOU KNOW . . .

Diane Tucker of Marana was crowned Mrs. World 2007 in March.

Tucker competed as Mrs. Arizona and won the 30th anniversary Mrs. America pageant in Tucson in September 2006. She grew up in Sierra Vista, but said at the time that she had lived in Tucson since enrolling at the UA in 1995.

— Source: Arizona Daily Star Archives