The day Queen Elizabeth visited South Florida, and what we thought about each other
Queen Elizabeth II, the longest ruling monarch in British history, died Thursday after seven decades on the throne, Buckingham Palace announced.
She was 96.
Queen Elizabeth has been in the news this year.
▪ She celebrated 70 years on the throne.
▪ She gave her blessing for Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall to be queen when her son Prince Charles becomes king.
▪ And she tested positive for COVID-19.
In 1991, the queen visited South Florida. And we were captivated. We think she was, too.
Let’s go back to that time through the archives of the Miami Herald.
What did the queen do when she was here? How did we celebrate her presence?
Here we go:
Our queen for a day
Published May 17-18, 1991
By Martin Merzer and Richard Wallace
South Florida celebrated a regal day of white gloves, red carpets and blue blood Friday as Queen Elizabeth II - surrounded by a royal retinue and hounded by a media mob - arrived for an intensely busy, carefully scripted Miami stopover.
Arriving by Concorde supersonic jetliner at Miami International Airport at 1:53 p.m. May 17, after concluding a state visit in Washington, the queen disembarked to a rendition of God Save the Queen.
Garbed in blue and white, including blue hat and white gloves, the queen was greeted by Gov. Lawton Chiles.
“Your Majesty, we’re happy to have you in Florida,” the oft-folksy governor politely intoned. Then he briskly shook hands with the queen’s spouse, Prince Philip.
Thus began a one-day, tightly scheduled whirlwind of queenly activity that ranged from meeting students at Booker T. Washington Middle School in Overtown, to meeting hundreds of VIPs at Vizcaya, to dining with former Presidents Ford and Reagan aboard her palatial royal yacht Britannia.
In addition, her travels through the day were punctuated with scattered streetside protests in Miami.
But on the northeastern side of the airport - a spot where such personages as Pope John Paul II and Gloria Estefan previously have landed - a few commoners who simply wanted to partake in a little Monarch Mania were interspersed amid the small army of security personnel and important personages.
One nonofficial spectator was Charles Rowe, 19, born in Jamaica and a self-described “royalty fan.” He wore a hand-made crown fashioned from scarlet fabric and aluminum foil.
“I love royalty, but I’ve never seen her,” said Rowe, renaming himself “Prince Charles” for the occasion.
As state troopers, the U.S. Secret Service, Metro-Dade police, bomb-sniffing dogs, and rooftop lookouts and sharpshooters stood guard, the queen then entered a black stretch limousine. A motorcade quickly formed for the queen’s shuttle run to Booker T. Washington.
As soon as the queen took her seat in the school auditorium, a group of students from the New World School of the Arts performed a play called Magic City, a saga of the city of Miami and its history. The performers practiced for three weeks. The show lasted 15 minutes.
After the performance, the queen and Prince Philip spoke to the performers. Philip asked them about their future plans and congratulated them on their performance.
“She didn’t say anything except, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ She’s adorable,” said Iris Delgado, 19, one of the performers and a sophomore at the New World School of the Arts.
The queen came out of Booker T. Washington about 2:50 p.m. to hear and see the school’s marching band. Ten minutes earlier, a five-minute shower had sprinkled the grounds.
As the queen emerged, a group of 20 to 30 Boycott Miami protesters across the street from school grounds started shouting “Mandela! Mandela!” and carried signs which read “Remember Mandela” and “Boycott Miami.”
Earlier in the day, about a dozen protesters gathered on the sidewalk in front of the Hotel Inter-Continental Miami.
“We’re disappointed that the city is rolling out the red carpet for the royal visit of the queen, but the black people who live here are getting the royal shaft,” said Boycott Miami spokesman H.T. Smith, an attorney.
“Mandela got snubbed when he came, but the town comes to a halt for the queen,” Smith said.
Protesters also had an effect around Vizcaya, where security was bolstered as the queen’s motorcade journeyed there from the Overtown school.
Along the way to Vizcaya - the Renaissance-influenced Mediterranean mansion built between 1914 and 1916 by James Deering - the queen rolled past several hundred friendlier curbside spectators on Brickell Avenue.
Without a special invitation for the VIP events scheduled for the rest of the day and night, most people desiring a nontelevised view of the queen would be able to do no better than get such a fleeting look at Queen Elizabeth in the flesh.
At 3:13 p.m., two minutes early, the queen’s limo passed. Her Royal Majesty was clearly visible through the lightly tinted glass. She was smiling and gently waving a gloved hand.
At Vizcaya, the queen met and mingled with 350 carefully selected guests reflecting the composition of the area’s political and business leadership, its power elite and its diverse ethnic makeup.
Among those meeting the queen was environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 101, who wore a bright red straw hat and a white lace dress. Metro-Dade Mayor Steve Clark presented the queen with a copy of Douglas’ classic Everglades: River of Grass in a velvet-lined wooden box.
The queen also met with youngsters from Miami Children’s Hospital, including Ryan Szurgot, an 8-year-old heart patient who presented her with six Miami Children’s Hospital watches for her grandchildren.
Some of the queen’s activity at Vizcaya was cut short slightly by drizzling rain. When she departed, it was on a 40- foot royal blue barge for the 15-minute trip to her yacht. She was escorted by a flotilla of five security boats for the journey to Britannia at Terminal 12 in the port.
There, a dine-aboard dinner on the 412-foot yacht was held for more than 50 high-priority guests, including former Presidents Ford and Reagan, plus Chiles and U.S. Sens. Bob Graham and Connie Mack.
The dinner and socializing on Britannia were the last official duties for a seemingly tireless monarch who had begun her day in the U.S. capital. Queen Elizabeth concluded her third U.S. state visit with a 20-minute prayer service at the recently completed Washington National Cathedral. Shortly after noon, she flew out of Andrews Air Force Base for Miami.
After the day’s formal events ended in Dade County, the queen was scheduled to depart, a la Cinderella, at the stroke of midnight. The Britannia will skirt the Florida Keys on its way to Tampa, next major stop on the queen’s route during her official visit.
The queen tours Miami
Published May 17-18, 1991
Silliness reigned on Brickell Avenue, where about 200 people lined up to wait for the queen.
One man and his English pug wore British flag T-shirts.
A woman sported a headdress made from a manila folder, looking more like a pope than a queen.
False alarms trumpeted through the crowd.
A collective gasp went through the crowd as the queen, clearly visible behind lightly tinted glass, smiled and waved from her limo.
“I saw her!” screamed a burly construction worker.
Kenya Cox, 14, was one of 400 people at Booker T. Washington who got a chance to see the queen up close. Kenya brought his camera, but didn’t get a picture.
He was looking for an action shot. The queen didn’t oblige.
“The queen just sat there. It was all right, but she could have done a little more.”
But Kenya didn’t go home empty-handed.
“I took a whole bunch of pictures of some girls.”
During a tour of Vizcaya, the queen was presented to South Florida legends, artists Haydee and Sahara Scull. The identical twins presented the queen with one of their trademark multimedia, three-dimensional pictures, this one depicting the queen at Vizcaya with flamingos overhead.
The sisters were dressed alike, as always, in pink dresses of swiss dot tulle and giant pink hats and gloves. They were accompanied by their son Michael. They explained to the queen that they never tell who is Michael’s biological parent.
“Oh, two mothers,” the queen said.
“It’s worse in the Bahamas,” said a sign carried by one of a dozen picketers standing on hot, dusty Northwest 14th Street as the queen approached Booker T.
“Let our daughters go,” said another.
The impromptu group was protesting prison conditions in Britain’s Prison at Fox Hill, Nassau, the Bahamas, home to dozens of Americans jailed on drug charges.
They spoke of harsh conditions, of poor food and water, of mothers here who haven’t seen their daughters there in three years, of babies here who haven’t seen their mothers there for two years.
They stood on the north side of the street. As the queen’s limousine approached and turned, she was on the opposite side of the street. There is no chance she saw them.
Before boarding a barge that would take her to her yacht Britannia, the queen chatted with students from Coconut Grove Elementary. Uriah Goldfinger, 12, a sixth-grader, asked her how long she had been queen.
“Too long!,” she shot back, then added: “Wait and read about it in your history book.”
Students learning English as a second language in a class at Booker T. school got a geography tip from Prince Philip.
Teacher Dafna Sonnethol asked if any of the students wanted to point to the place on the map where the queen had come from.
The queen’s husband raised his hand and quipped, “The airport.”
A student spoke up and said “England.”
Dinner with the queen
Published May 17-18, 1991
By Jane Wooldridge
Miami, a brash city known for glitter and flash, experienced one of its most sophisticated evenings of glamour Friday -- dinner with Queen Elizabeth II.
At the Port of Miami, under clear skies, a select aggregation of British and American guests attended a black-tie dinner aboard the 412-foot royal yacht, Britannia.
The first group of nearly 60 included 27 Americans, with the rest British. A second group to board the yacht in Terminal 12 included 200 VIPs.
“She has great style,” said Miami City Ballet artistic director Edward Villella as he left the party. “She’s a perfect example of what we might be.”
Remedios Diaz-Oliver spoke with Prince Philip. “He is so impressed with Miami, I think he might retire and move here.”
At the exclusive dinner, the queen sat flanked by former President Ronald Reagan and Gov. Lawton Chiles, who arrived carrying a gift bag with a conch shell, orange blossom honey and marmalade. Also at the head table: former President Gerald Ford and wife Betty; U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and his wife, Adele; Sen. Connie Mack and his wife, Priscilla; and Nancy Reagan and Rhea Chiles.
A sampling of some of the rest of the guest list: British Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd, Burger King chief Barry Gibbons and his wife, Judy; Jeb and Columba Bush; developer Armando Codina and his wife, Maggie; and Knight-Ridder chairman Jim Batten and his wife, Jean.
On the menu: lobster and egg in tomato, lamb, carrots and lemon souffle.
The 5-foot-4 queen wore a form-fitting, floor-length gown of dusty rose brocade with a capelet at the shoulder, long white evening gloves, a diamond necklace and earrings.
After a week of local debate on the eternal fashion question -- long gown or short? -- the yacht’s guests followed the lead set by Washington women earlier this week. They opted for long, simply cut gowns.
Nancy Reagan wore a white gown belted at the waist with a triple strand of pearls, and a diamond collar. Betty Ford wore a flowing salmon-colored gown. Rhea Chiles wore cream-colored trousers topped by a matching lace jacket. Adele Graham had one of the prettiest outfits, a gold jacket over a dark skirt.
Unlike the English, who are born into a rigid class system, many of the American guests hark from inauspicious beginnings. “For the grandson of a sharecropper from Mississippi to be having dinner with the queen of England is the ultimate experience,” said Chamber of Commerce Chairman Sherrill Hudson, who grew up in a home with no indoor bathroom. Said Nancy Lipoff, “I’ve never been so nervous and excited.” Aubrey Simms, wife of consultant Robert Simms, agreed. “It’s a great honor. I’m just happy and thrilled about it.”
The centerpiece at the dinner table was a gift to the queen from the emir of Qatar -- a gold figurine of a camel beneath two gold, eight-inch palm trees set with dates made of rubies. Also on the head table were two silver galleons -- church altar pieces that date to the 14th and 15th centuries. Silver candelabra set with electric candles and shades provided soft lighting. The guests dined on Minton and Spode, with silverware that came from a previous royal yacht, the Albert and Victoria.
Later in the evening, the second group of 200 arrived for a post-dinner, black-tie reception. The guests included Carnival Cruise founder Ted Arison and wife Lin; Univision president Joaquin Blaya; Republican heavyweight Alec Courtelis and his wife, Louise; and Miami Times Publisher Garth Reeves.
At 10:30 p.m., the yacht guests were treated to the highlight of the evening: the ceremonial beat retreat. The guests and crew lined the decks of the ship in anticipation. The queen came out and waved to a group of well-wishers.
The lights went off and the 24-member Royal Marine Band, wearing pith helmets, struck up the chords, marching to and fro on the seawall as Miami’s laser light show and the red-white- and-blue CenTrust Tower provided a backdrop. The strains wafted away -- The Star Spangled Banner and God Save the Queen -- and Britannia prepared to weigh anchor.
Queen and queen conch in the Keys
Published May 18-19, 1991
By Andres Viglucci
From the moment Queen Elizabeth II stepped onto the dock on this spit of land in the Gulf of Mexico, it was quite clear she had strayed far, far, indeed, from the decorous British Isles.
A day after their tightly scheduled, red-carpet stopover in Miami, the queen and her retinue took the royal yacht Britannia to the Dry Tortugas, where they were greeted in a more, shall we say, relaxed manner.
On hand to receive Her Majesty were a noisy flock of sooty terns and a gaggle of sunburned campers and boaters spending the weekend on this island-park, 70 miles off Key West, in all their finery -- shorts, swim trunks and T-shirts. One bare-chested gentleman had a big ship tattooed on his breast.
Because Her Majesty does not grant interviews, it’s impossible to say what she thought. But she didn’t seem to mind. The tourists, who had been cheering and practicing the royal wave for British TV before the queen came ashore, applauded politely once she came into view. The queen smiled and waved back.
In any case, the royal party seemed to have come in the informal spirit of the day, after their own fashion. The Britannia and the small armada accompanying it, including a British frigate, were left standing offshore.
The queen alighted from the royal dinghy, er, barge, about 4:15 p.m., wearing a cool flowered print dress and comfortable- looking shoes. She carried a white handbag and an umbrella, which was rolled up. The queen was bareheaded.
Lanky Prince Philip, her husband, was suitably tropical on the sweltering afternoon: Panama hat, Hawaiian print shirt worn loose, gray slacks and suede desert boots. Others in the party -- including the British foreign secretary, the ambassador to the United States, their wives, two royal secretaries and 11 others -- followed suit.
Waiting for them was the local monarch, Wilhelmina Harvey, the septuagenarian mayor of Monroe County.
Harvey, who earlier had entertained bemused British reporters by recounting family history and Key West lore, presented the queen with a conch shell - a queen conch shell - which Her Majesty quickly passed off to an attendant.
Harvey also brought a framed certificate gaily decorated with smiling sea creatures, naming the British monarch an honorary citizen of the Conch Republic, the mock nation born out of the Florida Keys’ mock secession a few years back.
The retinue was escorted into the massive, historic fort that dominates the tiny island and were given a tour by park ranger Matt Fagan and superintendent Michael Eng.
After the tour, the queen and her retinue planned to enjoy a picnic on nearby Loggerhead Key. Later, they were to sail around the tip of Florida to the next official stop on their visit, Tampa, where the queen is to confer an honorary knighthood on Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
She would leave behind some delighted campers and one slightly disappointed girl, Sunrise Middle School student Marcela Rasa, who was expecting something more, well, regal.
“I thought she was going to come wearing her crown jewels,” she said.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 8:30 AM.
