A Crowning Achievement : Erica Beth Brynes Beat Out 600 Others on Way to Becoming Rose Parade Queen

An 18-year-old Arcadia High School senior who plans to study history in college was chosen Tuesday as queen of the 105th Rose Parade, emerging from a field of seven finalists.

When her name was announced in ceremonies at tournament headquarters in Pasadena, Erica Beth Brynes huddled emotionally for a minute with her six princesses. Then, straightening her tiara, she accepted a bouquet of roses and stood gamely at attention for a battalion of photographers and television cameras.

A short, dark-haired young woman with eyes that crinkle when she smiles, Brynes said she had entered the competition without real hope that she would be selected queen from a diverse group of more than 600 contestants.

“I tried to take it all in stride, to be myself,” she said of the monthlong selection process.

“The biggest thing I’m afraid of is just how big the parade is,” Brynes said. “They say it will be televised to 450 million people worldwide.”

Liana Yamasaki, who presided over the 1993 parade, watched sagely from the sidelines. “It will take some adjusting the first week,” she said. “It’s overnight celebrity.”

But Brynes will be able to handle the pressures of instant recognizability, Yamasaki said. “The first word that popped into my mind after I met her was genuine ,” Yamasaki said.

The new queen’s mother, Angelita Brynes, an anesthesiologist at County-USC Medical Center, looked on with some misgivings about the emphasis on her daughter’s physical appearance.

A modeling school once tried to recruit Erica, she said. “It’s a nice job, modeling,” Angelita Brynes said. “(But) I don’t think it’s for us.”

Erica is the second daughter of Angelita and Russell Brynes, a medical pathologist who heads the clinical laboratories at City of Hope National Medical Center. The father was in Florida on Tuesday, teaching a class.

Asked about charges from Pasadena church and community leaders that the Tournament of Roses has practiced racial exclusion, the new queen said, “I myself am Philippine-American, and I’ve experienced no discrimination whatsoever” from the tournament.

This year, the nine-member Queen and Court Committee includes three women and an African-American man. Women’s groups have complained in the past about the selection of rose princesses by a panel of white men.

Church and community groups have threatened to disrupt the parade unless the tournament agrees to add four minorities to its all-white, all-male executive committee.

The Royal Court--Brynes and the six rose princesses--will ride in the New Year’s Day parade on a float sponsored by Nordstrom.