Former Miss America contestant Leah Hulan is now Tennessee's best known bail bondsman. (Laura Leigh Smith)
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Not many people expect to be bailed out of jail by a former Miss America contender.
Unless they live in Middle Tennessee.
Leah Hulan certainly never dreamed about a career as a bail bond agent.
The glamorous Hulan, a Riverdale High School and MTSU graduate, competed as Miss Tennessee in both the Miss America pageant in 1992 and the Miss USA pageant in 1994 where she finished as sixth runner-up.
Afterward, Hulan's glamour world crumbled because of her food addiction and financial difficulties
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When husband Kevin Davis suggested opening a bail bonding business in 2000, Hulan asked, "What's a bail bondsman?"
Davis, whose grandfather was a bondsman, described how bond agents meet with arrested suspects and post their bond for release from jail.
They plunged into the endeavor, naming it Grumpy's after Davis, who acted "grumpy" one day. Drawing from self-marketing in the pageant series, Hulan marketed herself to promote the business.
The voluptuous Hulan now appears on billboards and television saluting troops in Operational Iraqi Freedom, dangling the key to freedom and acting as an "Angel of Freedom." One billboard is located on Southeast Broad Street in Murfreesboro.
"Being a narcissist, it's easy for me," jokes Hulan with a dazzling smile. "My whole world revolves around me."
Her marketing, including door-to-door visits, propelled Grumpy's to become neighboring Williamson County's top bonding company in six years. The couple expanded Grumpy's in January to Rutherford County with her mother, Marcia Manley, and Martin Rosa as bond agents.
Hulan, who lives in Williamson County, normally answers calls and writes bonds for prisoners 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while husband Davis writes bonds and searches for the fugitives who fail to show up in court. She attends court frequently to ensure her clients show up. Hulan and Davis live their jobs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Even the birth of their daughter Laila didn't stop business for long.
When Hulan delivered their first child, Laila, Sept. 10, Davis left shortly after her birth with Hulan's blessing to search for a fugitive.
While still hospitalized from Laila's birth, Hulan answered calls about defendants and their court appearances.
Hulan frankly discussed the successful business as well as her personal struggles during an interview at her "sanctuary" log home in Williamson County. With her in-laws and nanny caring for Laila, Hulan curled up on a couch on her porch, pet her dog, Trixie, and nibbled on grapes while discussing the challenges she's overcome.
She stopped the interview a few times to talk on the telephone with an agent who turned down a bond because of his gut feeling and too many unanswered questions.
Food addiction
Hulan draws her drive from maternal grandmother Carremaye Manley, 98, of AdamsPlace, who suffered through multiple miscarriages before delivering her only child, Marcia Manley, now a retired Riverdale French and algebra teacher.
Doctors didn't believe Marcia would survive being born four months into her mother's pregnancy. Marcia Manley passed her determination onto Hulan and daughters Lori Hulan McCarrall and Kara Kemp.
As a child, Hulan needed more attention, which she thinks contributed to her food addiction beginning at age 6 or 7. As early as high school, Hulan binged on food and later vomited 10 to 15 times a day.
"Binging and purging was the highlight of my day," Hulan recalled.
Her hidden addiction continued after she enrolled in ROTC at MTSU. She earned her commission as a second lieutenant, studied military intelligence and kept up-to-date with current news. She served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army in Panama during the Gulf War.
After becoming Miss Tennessee, she spent the next year representing the state in the Drug-Free Tennessee Alliance. She believed she would become Miss America but didn't even place as a finalist, a development that destroyed her confidence.
She re-entered the Miss USA pageant series, finishing as a sixth runner-up. She weighed 88 pounds.
After being in the limelight for several years, she didn't have a job or career, leaving her lonely, angry, tired and hungry in a self-destructive phase.
Hulan realized she needed help and obtained therapy three times. She "threw out on paper" her thoughts about bulimia.
"Instead of stuffing myself with food and purging and regurgitating, I got it out, so it was not so toxic," Hulan explained.
Her journal developed into a book, "Pain Behind the Smile: My Battle with Bulimia." While Hulan sometimes regrets sharing her thoughts, she draws comfort from readers who believe the book helped them.
Hulan finally conquered her addiction after therapy at Remunda Ranch at Wickenburg, Ariz., where a doctor described her as a "drama queen, narcissist and post traumatic stress disorder" sufferer. The program taught her to eat and gain control. She's been in recovery more than seven years.
An "epiphany"
Hulan met Davis at a Nashville gym. They dated two weeks before getting married 10 years ago.
As a newlywed, Hulan received an offer from Playboy magazine for "national exposure — no pun intended." She didn't ask her husband's opinion, but her mother opposed the offer and asked her not to do it.
During the photo shoot, the photographer and an assistant took her to a decadent apartment and asked her to do poses that made her feel uncomfortable.
She experienced an epiphany that "felt like little sparkles or diamonds falling from the sky," Hulan described as she waved her fingers downward. "Sometimes the Lord tickles you with a feather or uses a freight train to get your attention." She decided not to pose and returned home.
There, Davis allowed her to be a housewife where she stayed at home, baked bread and quilted until he parted ways with his boss. They both worked odd jobs until they spent all but their last pennies. They started a Bible study class at the John Easley Criminal Justice Center in Franklin. That's when Davis conceived the idea of becoming bond agents.
She knew they had to advertise in a different manner to draw attention to Grumpy's because bond agents can't advertise at the jail or in court. She walked door-to-door in many neighborhoods and left cards in phone booths. She gave away T-shirts, baby bibs and shot glasses advertising the business.
After the second year, she and Davis developed a strategic plan.
An artist friend developed the trademark logo of a sexy Hulan dangling a jail key with the slogan, "Call now. Get free. Be happy. You ring...We spring." She posed for billboards and starred in her own commercials.
"I got to meet my needs without taking my clothes off," Hulan said with a grin, poking fun at herself, "I don't have to wear a crown."
She joined the chamber of commerce and participated in the Citizens Police Academy. Calls for bonds rolled in.
When called about a bond, Hulan and Davis or their bond agents meet with the arrested person and family member to discuss arrangements during an interview. They decide if they should take the risk of the person returning to court.
They've learned 80 percent of the people they bond out suffered from an addiction such as drugs, alcohol, bad relationships, shoplifting or gambling.
Hulan empathizes. "As a former addict, it can rule your world."
A compassionate Hulan does reality checks with clients, keeping them informed of court dates and establishing restrictions such as refraining from drugs. They soon became No. 1 in the market. Hulan now teaches marketing to the Tennessee Association of Professional Bail Agents, where she serves as vice president.
Manley is proud of Hulan.
"People asked me, 'Is that your daughter? She bailed me out. She made me feel like I wasn't bad. She made me feel so comfortable.' I think that gets spread word of mouth."
Hulan is "very good at remembering people. She has that knack of making whoever is around comfortable."
She's already planning advertisements featuring Laila.
"Right now, I feel free from the clutches of addiction," Hulan said reflectively. "I've just had a baby. I don't binge, purge or over exercise. The Lord has blessed anything I've wanted to do."
Senior writer Lisa Marchesoni may be reached at 869-0814.
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