I guess its like a coming out kinda thing. "Coronation of the order of the Alamo":
The court:
The Municipal Auditorium stage is ablaze with color during the Coronation of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo ceremony on April 21, 2004. Gloria Galt Steves was crowned queen.
Look at that gal bow...
The Duchess of the Emperor's Imperial Hunt, Henley Shirey Bracken, and her Duke, Paul Randolph May III, bow during the Coronation of the Queen ceremony of the Order of the Alamo Municipal Auditorium.
Emily Spicer
San Antonio Express-News
It's hard to imagine that the coronation of a true blue-blood monarch could be any more lavish than the Order of the Alamo's coronation.
Here the queen and her attendants wear acres of sumptuous velvet, yards of ermine trim and enough crystal and rhinestones to pave a football field.
That's hard to top, no matter how big your kingdom. And here in San Antonio, we don't wait for a death or marriage to crown someone new. We do it every year for Fiesta.
Wednesday evening, the crowd at Municipal Auditorium witnessed the crowning of Gloria Galt Steves as the Queen of the Court of the Lion and the Dragon and second runner-up Mary Tuleta Moore as Princess of the Spirit of Oriental Beauty.
To honor this year's theme of the splendors of the Silk Road, Mistress of the Robes Helen Eversberg decided to set the stage as an extravagant tent of the type in which Middle and Far Eastern nobility would rest and socialize while traveling along the fabled road.
Purple, gold and green sashes hung suspended from a ceiling of gold-quilted red velvet, which opened onto a desert oasis at twilight complete with three camels overlooking the evening's proceedings.
The theme provided not only a beautiful backdrop for the coronation, but an education for the audience. Only half of those informally polled in the lobby before showtime knew that the Silk Road was a series of trade routes that crisscrossed Asia and Europe from Japan to ancient Rome from the first millennium B.C. through the middle of the second millennium A.D.
One family of San Antonio women was especially eager to watch the show, because it was their first time to the event.
"I've lived here all my life, and I've never been, so I thought we should come," said Willetta Parish, who treated her daughter and granddaughter to the show.
This year there were 10 out-of-town duchesses from all over Texas and as far away as Atlanta. Unlike the 12 in-town duchesses who all performed their bows successfully and, for the most part gracefully, the out-of-towners experienced a few glitches.
Claire Cravens Browder of Waco sat facing the wrong side of the stage, and her duke had to rescue her several minutes later. Then Austin's Megan Elizabeth Maund struggled to free her train.
Finally, as the last out-of-towner was finishing her procession, the lower house suddenly was illuminated because of an early light cue.
In the end, none of these issues could have dimmed the enthusiasm of Sage Noe for the event. Noe, 13, is already a pro when it comes to coronation, having been a page three times and grown up with stories of her mother and aunt as duchesses and then as Mistresses of the Robes.
"Hopefully I'll be a duchess one year," Noe said. "I love how much time and effort it takes to make the beautiful designs of the dresses." All very noble-sounding until she gets to the real reason she wants to be a duchess.
"All the cute dukes, and, I don't know, wearing a pretty dress and walking down. I always thought that would be really fun."
Happy Fiesta!!
I hope to get some pins! Woo hoo! Viva Fiesta!! Oh yeah, it's killin me b/c I can't watch the Spurs game tonight. Oh well, that's the sacrifice that I make for Fiesta!!
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