Still reigning

Deepa Bharath

Nancy Skinner vividly remembers the evening she was crowned Rose

Queen.

The year was 1951. It was right around Thanksgiving. Skinner was

only 17, a student at Pasadena City College.

There was a special event that evening to which the seven Rose

princesses were invited. That was the evening a queen would be

crowned.

“It was so casual those days,” said Skinner, now 68. “I drove

myself to the event and, when I got back, I asked my mom, ‘Guess who

the queen is?’ My mom guessed several different names and, finally,

when she saw me smiling, she said: ‘You’re the queen!’ and then gave

me a big hug. It was nice. I enjoyed playing with my mom.”

It’s been 51 years since this longtime Newport Beach resident and

environmentalist donned the coveted crown. But Skinner still

cherishes the experience.

Every year, she gets together with former Rose queens, including

her friend Holly Halsted Bathis -- a former Newport Beach resident

and the oldest surviving Rose Queen at 94. She rode the Rose Parade

float in 1930. On Monday, Skinner drove to Pasadena to participate in

the Kodak Rose Queens Brunch, to which all the queens were invited.

“I always thought this was a one-time affair,” Skinner said. “I

thought you’re queen this year and forgotten the next year. But that

wasn’t true. It’s something that continues through your life and I’ve

enjoyed that.”

In fact, six other Rose queens live in the Newport-Mesa area,

which, Skinner says, is not at all surprising.

“When I was a girl, we always used to come to Newport Beach for

the summer,” she said. “I know that a lot of Pasadenians enjoyed

doing that. Many, including myself, moved to this area as well.”

She rode in Tournament of Roses parade twice since her reign as

Rose Queen -- once for the parade’s 100th year and another time on an

insurance company’s float.

In those days, the selection process was different, Skinner

recalled. Girls did not send in applications to the tournament

committee. Instead, all girls in both of Pasadena’s city colleges got

to participate.

“We’d have to hold out our registration numbers and walk before

the judges so it would be a fair process,” she said. “They got to

know you only when you got to the last seven or so. I’m glad now that

it was that way or I would have never applied.”

Skinner doesn’t recall being asked the kind of questions women are

asked at pageants these days.

“We just had casual conversations with the judges,” she said. “It

was pretty simple.”

During her year as queen, Skinner got to travel to Mexico City for

a parade and to New York City as part of a promotional campaign for

Chrysler.

Skinner believes the image of the Rose Queen hasn’t changed a

whole lot over the years.

“I always thought it was the girl-next-door kind of image,” she

said. “I don’t think I was the prettiest of the bunch. I think they

picked me because they thought I wouldn’t say anything that would

embarrass the Tournament.”

But that’s the way Skinner is -- modest -- said her son-in-law Bob

Caustin, also a Newport Beach environmentalist.

“I think she’s a very different kind of Rose Queen,” he said. “She

rarely talks about it. She would be quick to say there were more

beautiful women. But Nancy Skinner is Nancy Skinner. She’s a very

special woman with a very sweet personality.”

Skinner says she now occasionally shares her “scrapbook” with her

grandchildren.

“We call it grandmommy’s parade,” she said with a laugh. “Beyond

that, my life was pretty normal. It was like this small pocket of

fun, an extraordinary time.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.