Queen Lillian, Princess Shelby realize a lifelong dream
Best friends Princess Shelby White, left, and Queen Lillian Cooley are ’49er Days junior royalty for 2019.
For a gal who has lived in the Methow Valley her entire life, what could be better than being crowned Queen of Winthrop ’49er Days? Having her best friend be crowned ’49er Days Princess, that’s what.
Linked by a lifetime of friendship and grounded in a love of the Methow Valley, ’49er Days Queen Lillian Cooley and Princess Shelby White are simply thrilled to be serving as junior royalty together for the community’s 74th ’49er Days celebration.
When you see the ’49er Days junior royalty waving from a horse-drawn carriage in Saturday’s (May 11) parade, you’ll see crimson Victorian dresses, full hoop skirts and sparkly tiaras. You’ll see friendly smiles, practiced waves and shiny curls. And although you won’t actually see it, you’ll become aware of a passion for this valley, and the meaningful relationships formed here, that inspired both Queen Lillian and Princess Shelby to represent Winthrop in its annual celebration of pioneer heritage.
Queen Lillian is a senior at Liberty Bell High School, and although she auditioned for the 2018 junior royalty, she’s now glad that it didn’t work out, since it gave her an opportunity to serve with her best friend, Princess Shelby, this year.
Queen Lillian has been attending ’49er Days parades and events ever since she was a little girl, and always looked up to the junior royalty. “I always wanted to be a princess,” she says. “To be able to do it for ’49er Days — it’s such a great opportunity to be representing something I love.”
Always active
Queen Lillian is in possession of an abundance of love for the valley and its opportunities, as evidenced by the many extracurricular activities she has been involved in over the years. She danced with LFW School of Dance from ages 3-12, which, she says, “totally shaped who I am.” She swam for the Methow Valley Killer Whales swim team for eight years and has also played basketball, softball, volleyball and soccer, as well as wrestling and competing on the track team.
If you’ve seen Queen Lillian in recent years it may have been onstage, as an actor in one of the Liberty Bell Drama Company’s productions or in Poetry Out Loud competitions (she was the Eastern Regional Champion in 2016). Or perhaps you’ve seen her on the cheer team, yelling and revving up the crowd for boys’ and girls’ sports teams at Liberty Bell, or singing a uniquely beautiful version of the national anthem before the games. This is a gal who takes full advantage of the many ways to get involved in this valley.
Fully involved
Even in street clothes, sashes and tiaras are part of the program.
Like Queen Lillian, Princess Shelby seems never to have met a sport she didn’t like or at least wasn’t willing to try. In addition to being a wrestler since the age of 4, playing football, volleyball, basketball and hockey, Princess Shelby has been involved with 4-H for 12 years, including four years as president.
She’s also cheer captain, a lifeguard at the Wagner Memorial Pool, and a recent Okanogan County Fair Queen. And she competes on the rodeo circuit, in barrel racing and pole bending. All this, while being a junior at Liberty Bell High School and a freshman at Wenatchee Valley College, through the Running Start program.
Horses loom large in Princess Shelby’s background, but not so much in Queen Lillian’s. Still, she says, “I love horses. When I was little I painted my room two different shades of brown and had a horse motif. I collected those plastic horse figurines. I went to horse camp. Then the day came when I said to my parents, ‘So when am I going to get a real horse?’ And they gave me a new pair of ballet slippers.”
“Oh well,” the queen sighs with regal graciousness. “Horses are not where life led me.”
The ’49er Days experience is not actually the girls’ first time working together in an official royal capacity. When Princess Shelby was the County Fair Queen last year, she brought in Queen Lillian as her manager. “No other Fair Queen had ever had a manager before,” Princess Shelby says. “We had so much fun together.”
Spreading the word
That fun has spilled over into ’49er Days duties, as the girls travel the county representing Winthrop and spreading the word about the ’49er Days celebration. “We put up posters, we talk to people in the streets,” Princess Shelby says. “Sometimes we just wear jeans and shirts with our sashes and tiaras, but when we wear our dresses, we get so many people talking to us.”
Ah yes, the ’49er Days junior royalty dresses. This year’s dresses represent a big shift, away from locally made to commercially sourced. For the first time in recent memory the dresses will not be made by the usual seamstress, Donna Martin, who made custom Victorian dresses for ’49er Days princesses, queens, and grand ladies on and off starting in 1978, when her daughter Kelly was queen. For years Martin has been encouraging a younger generation of dressmakers to step forth, but none did this year, and thus Queen Lillian and Princess Shelby had their dresses custom made by Victorian Choice, a Redmond, Washington, company that creates historically-inspired clothing.
Martin loaned the girls hoopskirts worn by past junior royalty, which they use to prop up the copious folds of fabric that comprise their dresses. “When we drive, we take the hoops off,” says Princess Shelby, “and we bundle the skirts up into our arms and take a running leap into my truck.”
“Because her truck is so dirty and we don’t want to brush our dresses against it,” explains Queen Lillian. “But we’ve adjusted to maneuvering when we’re all dressed up.”
Packed schedule
Although the weeks leading up to ’49er Days are busy, the week before the parade will be really packed for the junior royalty. In addition to lunches with the students at Methow Valley Elementary School and the residents of Jamie’s Place, the junior royalty are hoping to visit elementary schools in Okanogan and Omak. During the Ride to Rendezvous, they’ll travel out to the campsites each night to eat dinner and socialize with guests, as well as riding into town with the wagon train on Friday morning.
Saturday morning is, of course, the parade, where the royalty will wave from horse-drawn carriages. After the parade, the queen and princess will walk through town, meeting people and posing for photos before spending the afternoon in the Winthrop Park enjoying the displays and festivities. Then Saturday night’s coronation and barn dance take place, fittingly, at the Winthrop Barn, where the royalty will kick up their heels after officially being crowned queen and princess.
The junior royalty’s ’49er Days formal duties end with the Mother’s Day cowboy breakfast in the Winthrop Park on Sunday morning, at which point, says Queen Lillian, “it will really be over, although it never will be in our hearts.” To prolong their reign, the royalty may attend a rodeo in Wenatchee on Sunday night.
To younger students considering a bid for junior royalty one day, Queen Lillian and Princess Shelby offer wholehearted encouragement. “Go with your gut,” says the princess. “If you think you want to do it, go for it. Don’t stress about it,” while the queen adds, “If you love this place, being junior royalty for ’49er Days is the best way to show it.”
And summing up what seems to be genuine passion for this valley emanating from both girls, Queen Lillian gestures, to the tiaras, to the balsamroot blooming on the hills, to the people surrounding her. “All this,” she says, encompassing both the junior royalty’s approach to their roles and the welcome they’re getting from valley residents, “all this comes from the heart.”
Related information:
2019 Winthrop ’49er Days schedule
