The Name of the Rose Queen

Please excuse the non-professional-looking picture above... it's from the collection of yours truly.

I will always have a love for the Tournament of Roses Parade. My mother is from Pasadena, and we would visit the beautiful suburb of Los Angeles many times as I grew up. I remember going to the parade route a few times, and viewing the parade once from the stands and then walking to the Rose Bowl to see the game. The parade is unique in that all the floats are decorated with natural materials (flowers, seeds, wood, fruits, vegetables, plants, nuts, etc.) and nothing artificial is allowed, not even artificial coloring. Because of this, most of the floats are put together in the days before the parade, and viewing areas are set up for people to walk through and observe. The aroma surrounding the floats is heavenly.

I always wanted to take my kids to see the parade and am so grateful that wish came true last year. My daughter celebrated her sixth birthday watching the Tournament of Roses Parade in person. That's six years to the day after I watched the parade on television in the delivery room waiting for her to arrive. Her birthday happens to be on the second of January, but it is custom that if New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the parade and rest of the festivities are held on January 2. So, every six years, my baby girl will be able to watch the parade on her birthday. All that to say the Tournament of Roses is pretty special to me. Oh, and did I mention that my aunt was Rose Queen? ;)

My last post of 2012 is in honor of the many women who held the title of Rose Queen. There were some years in which no queen was named, so you may notice a gap in the numbers. Keep in mind that these girls were ages 17-21 at the time of their New Year's Day float ride, so you can count backwards if you want to know the year they were born. Let's take a look at the names!

1905 Hallie Woods
1906 Elsie Armitage
1907 Joan Woodbury
1908 May Sutton
1911 Ruth Palmer
1913 Jean French
1914 Mabel Seibert
1923 May McAvoy
1925 Margaret Scoville
1926 Fay Lanphier
1928 Harriet Sterling
1930 Holly Halsted
1931 Mary Lou Waddell
1932 Myrta Olmsted
1933 Dorothy Edwards
1934 Treva Scott
1935 Muriel Cowan
1936 Barbara Nichols
1937 Nancy Bumpus
1938 Cheryl Walker
1939 Barbara Dougall
1940 Margaret Huntley
1941 Sally Stanton
1942 Dolores Brubach
1943 Mildred Miller
1944 Naomi Riordan
1945 Mary Rutte
1946 Patricia Auman
1947 Norma Christopher
1948 Virginia Goodhue
1949 Virginia Bower
1950 Marion Brown
1951 Eleanor Payne
1952 Nancy Thorne
1953 Leah Feland
1954 Barbara Schmidt
1955 Marilyn Smuin
1956 Joan Culver
1957 Ann Mossberg
1958 Gertrude Wood
1959 Pamela Prather
1960 Margarethe Bertelson
1961 Carole Washburn
1962 Martha Sissel
1963 Nancy Davis
1964 Nancy Kneeland
1965 Dawn Baker
1966 Carole Cota
1967 Barbara Hewitt
1968 Linda Strother
1969 Pamela Anicich
1970 Pamela Tedesco
1971 Kathleen Arnett
1972 Margolyn Johnson
1973 Salli Noren
1974 Miranda Barone
1975 Robin Carr
1976 Anne Martin
1977 Diane Ramaker
1978 Maria Caron
1979 Catherine Gilmour
1980 Julie Raatz
1981 Leslie Kawai
1982 Katherine Potthast
1983 Suzanne Gillaspie
1984 Ann Marie Colborn
1985 Kristina Smith
1986 Aimee Richelieu
1987 Kristin Harris
1988 Julie Myers
1989 Charmaine Shryock
1990 Yasmine Delawari
1991 Cara Rullman
1992 Tannis Turrentine
1993 Liana Yamasaki
1994 Erica Brynes
1995 Aliya Haque
1996 Keli Hutchins
1997 Jennifer Halferty
1998 Purdy Tran
1999 Christina Farrell
2000 Sophia Bush
2001 Michelle Jacobs
2002 Caroline Hsu
2003 Alexandra Wucetich
2004 Megan Chinen
2005 Ashley Moreno
2006 Camille Clarke
2007 Mary McCluggage
2008 Dusty Gibbs
2009 Courtney Lee
2010 Natalie Innocenzi
2011 Evanne Friedmann
2012 Drew Washington
2013 Vanessa Manjarrez

If the New Year brings you a brand new baby girl, maybe one of these "royal" names will inspire you!

On a personal note, I would like to thank you for reading my blog this year! I wish all of you a very blessed New Year, and may we all be blessed with some wonderful name news in 2013. :)