104th Tournament of Roses Queen ‘Overwhelmed With Joy’

After the serenade by the Tournament of Roses band, the departing words from last year’s Rose Queen and the introduction of seven young women in tiaras, the 104th Tournament of Roses crowned a new queen on Tuesday.

She is Liana Carisa Yamasaki, a self-assured high school senior from Temple City who was smothered with congratulatory hugs by her six fellow princesses on the stage in front of Tournament of Roses headquarters on Orange Grove Boulevard.

Yamasaki was “overwhelmed with joy,” she said, holding a bouquet of roses and smiling for a phalanx of cameras.

The new queen attends Alverno High School in Sierra Madre and, like many of her predecessors, is preparing for an altruistic career. After she graduates from high school, she plans to attend a California college to study physical therapy. “I have a great deal of admiration for people who can help others recover from accidents,” she said.

Yamasaki will preside over the 104th Rose Parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena. She was selected from almost 700 young women who enlisted for the competition a month ago.

The Royal Court--the seven finalists announced last week--is a particularly diverse group this year, including two blacks, an Indonesian-American and Yamasaki, who has Japanese, Chinese and Peruvian antecedents.

“Diversity is something we should all learn to appreciate,” said the queen.

Yamasaki’s mother was more astonished by the selection than was the queen herself. “I don’t know how I feel, really,” said Peruvian-born Elena Yamasaki, a cosmetics manager at Bullock’s in Pasadena, as reporters and well-wishers swirled around her daughter. “I missed most of it. My mind went blank.”