Rose Queens: They’re a Mixed Bouquet

When they were young, they were Rose Queens--symbols of the eternally sunny, wholesome California dream. Wearing the crown, sitting atop the rose-festooned float, smiling and waving to the crowds that lined the streets for the Tournament of Roses Parade each New Year’s Day in Pasadena, they were part of an annual tradition shared by millions.

And then, after the last rose petals had been swept from the streets, they went on to live ordinary, comfortable lives. Details of those lives poured forth late last week at the Rose Queens’ annual brunch. A crowd of about 200 joined 34 queens, as they hugged and squealed and pointed to their photos and those of friends, on display at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Suitably, the affair was held in the hotel’s elegant Rose Ballroom.

What became of them? They didn’t choose careers as television announcers or actresses, as Miss America might. They didn’t hang around the Playboy mansion or date jocks, rappers and sheiks, as Miss USA might. Instead, they followed tradition, going to college, marrying lawyers and businessmen, settling down and raising children. Some worked, some stayed at home. And when they grew old, they played tennis and golf and coddled grandchildren.

Of course, some of the details of their lives were extraordinary. Nancy Davis Maggio traveled the country singing with the Sweet Adelines International chorus, and gained and lost 100 pounds--a couple of times--since she was crowned in 1963. Eleanor Payne Ford married a military man, and moved 43 times in the 50 years since her Rose Queen reign.

But hearth and home remained the focus of their lives. For example, 1967’s queen, Barbra Hewitt Laughray, became a minister, specializing in weddings. The 1953 Rose Queen, Leah Feland Collins, is a wedding planner who recently remarried. Yet another queen, 1955’s Marilyn Smuin Beutler, found success as an award-winning gourmet cook and author.

The Rose Queens seemed well-heeled; the room was awash in St. John knits, Ferragamo pumps and Chanel handbags accented by the occasional Burberry scarf.

Frozen in the portraits on display was a century’s worth of idealized Southern California femininity: queens draped in rich Victorian fabrics, all buttons and bonnets; queens with pouty, 1920s bee-sting lips; bobbed queens of the 1930s and ‘40s; queens with the strong features and heavy eyebrows of the 1950s. A row of queens with 1960s flips and white lipstick, was followed by even more queens wearing the flowing tresses of the 1970s and 1990s. In 1981, Leslie Kawai Davis, who is Japanese American, was the first nonwhite person to be crowned Rose Queen. Four years later, Christina Smith Espinosa, became the first African American queen.

In the early years, queens were chosen from among students at local colleges. Competing for the crown was a gym requirement for years at Pasadena City College. Eventually, local high schools joined the competition.

Aimee Richelieu Hookstratten, the 1986 Rose Queen, was the first to be photographed in color for the Tournament of Roses archives. She doesn’t look much different now than she did 15 years ago--even if she did make a face and run her fingers along her chin as she stole a look at her photograph.

Hookstratten said she never planned to be a Rose Queen. She tried out as a lark, because all her high school friends were doing it. Now, she’s married to Tom Brokaw’s lawyer. (Brokaw is this year’s parade grand marshall. Is there a connection? She couldn’t say.)

The grande dame of all Rose Queens is Holly Halstead Balthis, who now lives near Laguna Beach. The 1930 Rose Queen is a youthful 92 and the widow of Los Angeles appellate judge John Balthis. She met him as a freshman at UCLA, where, she told us, “I graduated with my ‘MRS.’--that means missus.”

She seems to know everyone, and her bright, round eyes--smudged with a trace of green shadow--sparkle with the joy of having lived a very good life, enjoying every minute of it.

This year, the queens contributed recipes to a cookbook echoing the parade’s theme--”A Bountiful Harvest.” The recipes also are traditional; several call for Jell-O as an ingredient. The cookbooks were given as gifts to the queens and aren’t available to the public. But, said brunch publicist Kirin Shamberg, so many people have asked about them, Tournament of Roses officials are considering publishing them for sale.

Hookstratten contributed an intriguing holiday dessert, Eggnog Frosted Angel Food Cake, which we are dying to try because it includes all our favorite indulgences: butter, powdered sugar, egg yolks, sherry, whiskey, whipping cream and nutmeg. For chocolate lovers, there is Grandma Sue’s Hot Fudge Sunday Sauce, compliments of 1984 Rose Queen Ann Marie Colborn, or Maggio’s concoction, Puppy Chow, which consisted of melted chocolate shaken in a bag with peanut butter, chocolate chips, powdered sugar and oat squares cereal.

The times, they are a-changin’, though, even for Rose Queens. The younger queens are more career-oriented. Although past queens were more likely to attend local universities, the crop from the last five years is going to colleges outside California--Columbia University and the College of William & Mary in Virginia, to name two. The younger queens also seem to be gravitating more toward news and entertainment careers. Liana Yamasaki, 1993’s queen, is engaged and just landed a new job as a TV news editor; 1985’s Smith Espinosa, a mother of two, is a programming executive for Aaron Spelling, and last year’s queen, Sophia Bush, a college freshman, has just been signed to play a part in an upcoming teen comedy film. Still, she makes a killer baby spinach and prosciutto salad.