PORT TOWNSEND — About 60 past queens and princesses who represented Port Townsend during the Rhododendron Festival’s 75-year history gathered for a royal reunion Saturday.

The senior member of the delegation meeting at the East Jefferson Fire-Rescue fire hall at 1256 Lawrence St., was 91-year-old Patricia Burns, who served as Rhody Fest queen in 1939.

“Times were tough back then, so it wasn’t very fancy,” she said.

“But we sure had a lot of fun.”

After the reunion, the past royalty served as grand marshals in the Grand Parade, which began at 1 p.m. on Lawrence Street.

Carlene DeLeo Dahlman, who served as queen in 1973, and Ann DeLeo Waters, who was queen of the festival in 1978, said they are the only sisters to serve as Rhododendron queens.

Also in attendance was their cousin, Betty DeLeo Caldwell, a 1946 queen and her granddaughter, 1997 queen Courtney Caldwell.

Caldwell remembered the very first festival, in 1935, when she was just 7 years old.

“It was just a lot of races back then,” she said. “And I lost every one.”

Dahlman said that her parents groomed her to be royalty, beginning as far back as she can remember.

“Becoming Rhododendron [Festival] royalty was very important to my family,” she said, adding that she wanted to participate.

“The family that reigns together stays together,” she said.

The reunited royalty varied in age, occupation, dress and demeanor, but all those asked had the same opinion about the program.

It gave them confidence, poise and the ability to speak in public.

Juanita Austin Maples, a Rhody Fest princess in 1990, once thought of herself as shy. Serving on the festival’s royal court changed that.

“I was required to talk to a lot of different groups when I was running as royalty and they asked a lot of tough questions, ” she said.

Said 2009 queen Cecily Ellis: “It taught me so much.”

“I’m sad that it’s over for me, but I’m happy for the other girls.”

Ellis hopes to pursue a career in acting and theater, so she especially appreciated the practice at speaking in public.

The reunion was organized by 1987 princess Christy Spencer, who hopes to make the reunion a permanent part of the Grand Parade, which is the finale of the annual Rhododendron Festival.

Spencer said she hoped next year’s gathering would get more past royalty members to volunteer for future festivals, but that was not the reunion’s purpose.

But 2004 princess Brooke Saul thinks that getting past royalty involved in the festival is essential to its continued existence.

“We desperately need more volunteers, more fresh blood,” she said.

“Rhody is dying, and people need to get involved.”

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Jefferson County reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.