Margaret Jayne Huntley Predominant, the oldest residing Event of Roses queen, has died. She was 102.
Predominant died of what seem like pure causes Friday in an assisted-living facility in Auburn, her household confirmed.
“We’re unhappy that we’ve misplaced her. She lived an extended life,” mentioned her son, Martin Predominant.
For Predominant, the dream of someday being topped queen took root at an early age. She watched her first Rose Parade at a younger age, drawing inspiration from Fay Lanphier — the 1926 queen who was additionally named Miss America.
“I noticed my first match precisely once I was 5½. I bear in mind watching the queen go down the road, and my daddy took my face and mentioned, ‘Margaret Jayne, there’s extra to the parade than the queen. Look down right here,’” she recalled in an interview with CBS Los Angeles in 2021. “However he was mistaken.”
Predominant’s dream was fulfilled when she was named the 1940 Rose Queen.
Then a pupil at Pasadena Metropolis Faculty, Predominant fondly remembered her expertise driving the float, which practically introduced her to tears.
“The float got here across the nook, and there’s slightly hill there, Pasadena, 1,000,000 folks,” she instructed CBS. “And the wave of affection overcame me.”
Predominant lived to be the “Classic Queen” — the oldest residing titleholder in Event of Roses historical past. She met practically each different Rose Queen throughout her lifetime, from Hallie Woods, the primary to preside over the Rose Parade in 1905, to Camille Kennedy in 2020.
Her last correspondence congratulated 2024 Rose Queen Naomi Stillitano following her coronation on Oct. 27.
“Rose Queen Margaret Jayne Huntley Predominant, a timeless image of grace, will endlessly adorn the historical past of the Rose Parade,” the Pasadena Event of Roses Assn. mentioned in an announcement. “Because the revered longest-living Rose Queen, her legacy shines as a testomony to the Rose Courtroom custom and her unwavering dedication to the Event of Roses.”
Born in Los Angeles on June 1, 1921, Predominant instructed The Occasions that her household misplaced all the pieces within the Nice Melancholy, forcing them to maneuver from a big Pasadena dwelling to a close-by “shack.”
“We have been very, very poor,” she mentioned in a 1994 interview. “I can nonetheless bear in mind my mother crying.”
Predominant earned a bachelor’s diploma from San Jose State College and grasp’s levels in early childhood, ethnic research and speech and drama from Sacramento State. She went on to work as a kindergarten trainer in Orangevale, northeast of Sacramento, from 1960 to 1982, and authored “From Me to We,” a six-book early childhood multicultural curriculum later adopted by the state of California.
Her life nearly took a decidedly completely different flip, nevertheless. After her reign, Howard Hughes supplied her the lead feminine position in his 1943 western movie “The Outlaw” — and visited her Pasadena dwelling a number of instances to attempt to persuade her to just accept.
Predominant instructed the Ahwatukee Foothills Information that Hughes approached her, took her by the hand and exclaimed, “Your pores and skin is completely flawless!” She mentioned Hughes instructed her she and her household would by no means need for something if she would conform to star within the film.
However Predominant declined, saying she had little interest in going to Hollywood. The half finally went to Jane Russell and have become her breakthrough position.
On the time, Predominant was secretly engaged to her future husband, Robert. She mentioned Hughes gifted the couple a pair of silver candlesticks as a marriage current.
Predominant was a mainstay of the parade, showing yearly on the float constructed for previous queens and attending coronations till she retired from journey in 2019.
In 1989, Predominant authored “A Rose Queen Is Eternally: The Story of Pasadena’s Event of Roses and Its Queens.”
Predominant was preceded in loss of life by Robert, her husband of 68 years, and their daughter Linda Predominant Hack. She is survived by three kids — John, Martin and Sandra — seven grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren and her sister, Alyce Predominant Levy.
