Queen Visits Environment Doyenne, 101

Florida rolled out the red carpet Friday for Queen Elizabeth II, who visited an inner-city school and met with a 101-year-old environmentalist.

The 65-year-old British monarch planned a weekend cruise around the state, ending with a visit Monday to Tampa to bestow an honorary knighthood on Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who led the allied rout of Iraqi forces in Operation Desert Storm.

The queen, who is traveling with her husband, Prince Philip, arrived from Washington aboard a privately chartered Concorde. The entourage was greeted by Gov. Lawton Chiles and then was whisked by limousine to Booker T. Washington Middle School in Miami’s predominantly black Overtown neighborhood.

Her tour brought out supporters of a Miami convention boycott that was called in protest against the city’s snub of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela last June.

Cuban-born Mayor Xavier Suarez refused to meet with Mandela because of his ties with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In December, Suarez said he regretted the way city officials had handled the visit, but boycott leaders were not appeased.

About two dozen black demonstrators in downtown Miami and another dozen at the middle school held boycott signs, and some wore “Remember Mandela” T-shirts.

The Irish American Unity Conference said it planned a demonstration at Bayfront Park, near where the queen’s yacht Britannia is docked. That is where a black-tie dinner was to be held for a select group of guests, including former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald R. Ford.

At the middle school, students entertained the queen with a 15-minute pageant on the city’s history, followed by a performance by the school’s marching band. In addition to “Rule Britannia,” the band performed some soul and rap songs.

The queen, wearing a thin blue and white frock with a blue boater, smiled and clapped politely. She did not seem bothered by the 88-degree heat.

At Vizcaya, an antique-filled, 70-room Italian Renaissance-style mansion on Biscayne Bay, the queen met with Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the 101-year-old Everglades preservation pioneer.

Schwarzkopf will be the 58th American to receive a British honorary knighthood since World War II. It is the highest honor Britain can bestow on a foreigner.