Collaboration across neighboring communities, including Glendale, has always been a special part of the Pasadena Rose Parade since its origin in 1890.
Barbara Ann Beaven-Buhl, who spent the majority of her life as a Glendale resident, spoke about her experience riding on Glendale’s “Peter Pan” float in the 1954 Tournament of Roses, before she died in early December at the age of 88.
Although her time on the float was 70 years ago, she remembered it like it was yesterday, even recalling the costume store, Western Costume Company in Hollywood, where she and her fellow rider, Mary Dibble, were sewn into their exquisite mermaid costumes. The two represented mermaids in Never-Never Land’s lagoon.
“The highlight was the costumes,” Beaven-Buhl said. “We were like real mermaids … They were authentic mermaid costumes. We couldn’t even walk in them, but they were beautiful, and we sat on the front of the float. I don’t know how we made it that many hours.”
After being elected Homecoming Queen at Glendale High School, Beaven-Buhl decided to compete in the Days of the Verdugos contest for the chance to be a part of the Rose Parade. Winning first runner-up princess, Beaven-Buhl secured her spot on the float along with the chosen queen, Dibble. She described her younger self as “shy,” but she knew this was an opportunity she would be crazy to turn down.
“There was such a distance between me and the big crowd. It’s like we were in two separate places, almost not even in the same realm and that was very exciting,” Beaven-Buhl said. “We just sat there and smiled and waved for hours.”
She remembered the odd sensation when it was all over and her high school boyfriend Don Buhl, who she later married, wrapped his overcoat around her. Just like that, she reunited with reality and left Never-Never Land.
It was a formative time for Beaven-Buhl, as she was about to graduate from high school and would soon get married.
“Everything converged: graduation and riding in the Rose Parade and getting married,” she said. “It all kind of happened all at once.”
Beaven-Buhl went on to have four children and dedicated herself to raising them. She also pursued poetry, sewing and was a devoted Catholic.
In one of her poems, “Fleeting Moments,” written in 1999, she wrote about riding in the Rose Parade as one of her most treasured memories.
The prom dress Mom and I made, the day I was Princess
and rode in the Rose Parade …
These moments though fleeting are etched in my mind,
They bring warmth all over when I recall, sometimes
A tear, a smile, occasionally a bit of denial
These are all moments to treasure …
Per tradition, this year’s Rose Parade will take place on New Year’s Day with the theme, “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language.”
First published in the December 30 print issue of the Glendale News-Press.
