Queen for the decades

VANCOUVER, Wash. – It may have been one of the first wardrobe malfunctions, only in G-rated fashion.

It happened 64 years before Janet Jackson’s halftime appearance at Super Bowl XXXVIII at Spring Lilac Parade III. It also was the first detail Shannon (Mahoney) Mitchell pulled from her memory when asked about the day she was crowned the first Lilac queen.

“It rained toward the end, and the marching majorettes from North Central had on sashes. They were wearing white blouses, and they got purple all over them, which ruined their blouses,” Mitchell recalled, in a tone more comical than catastrophic.

It was Tuesday, May 14, 1940. Mitchell was a senior at North Central High School, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.T. Mahoney of Northwest Boulevard, an A student, class secretary, captain of the golf team and a lead actress in the school play.

“I have no idea how I got picked,” Mitchell said recently from her home in Vancouver, earnestly playing down the role of the pretty, popular girl as if she were back in study hall. “But it was definitely an honor.”

Sixty-five years later and at age 82, Mitchell hasn’t lost her charm. Mitchell and her late husband, Maurice “Mitch,” lived all over the world before they settled down near their daughter and her family in Vancouver. There have been 59 queens crowned since Mitchell began the procession during that rainy spring day.

Although the Associated Garden Club-sponsored festival with a parade originated in 1938, the queen concept didn’t come into play until 1940 when Mitchell won over four other candidates. According to an article in The Spokesman-Review, the contestants were elected by the students at their high schools of North Central, Rogers, Lewis and Clark, Holy Names and Marycliff.

A faculty committee then selected the school representative, taking attractiveness, personality, good speaking, voice and grades into consideration.

Mitchell said she remembers just before graduation “we were sent to the Spokesman. We were in this room, and they made us walk around.” A newspaper article stated the candidates were interviewed by Harry Lantry of KHQ-TV.

“The first two years it was just a small deal to show off the lilacs,” Mitchell said. “I remember (in 1940), I helped plant a tree or something, and then everybody went their way.”

But not before participating in a parade and a luncheon at the Civic building, events documented in The Spokesman-Review and the defunct Spokane Chronicle.

“Deep purple, the pale pastels of lovely lavender; and a delicate white vied with each other today as Spokane arrayed itself in a profusion of lilac,” one newspaper said of the luncheon hall.

“Miss Mahoney, in a flowing gown of white satin and carrying a huge bouquet of purple lilacs was crowned by Mayor Frank G. Sutherlin,” it continued.

Mitchell, widowed last year after nearly 62 years of marriage, last participated in the Lilac Festival in 1999, when the theme was “Remember the Past.” She also was at the 50th celebration in 1988, when she and her husband still were living on the South Hill.

“I jazzed up my presentation,” she said of her talk at the 1999 Lilac luncheon. “I rearranged it because I was getting tired of saying the same things. I got a standing ovation. Maybe it was because I’m still around and able to talk.”

Unlikely for the active woman, who wears glasses only for reading and drives around Vancouver in a 1982 Mercedes in mint condition. A homeowner at Fairway Village golf community, Mitchell continues to work in the company’s office doing computer work as a financial accountant. She’s worked throughout her life, as an executive secretary or in other administrative jobs. A self-described computer nut, Mitchell said she spends 90 percent of her time on her home computer, teaching herself technical software programs.

“I’m learning it because it just fascinates me,” said Mitchell, who is vigorously working on mastering Flash Animation.

Her life in Mexico, Spain and Greece, and Washington, D.C., and other places – as the wife of a civil aviation professional – also gave her the opportunity to study languages. That led to her most time-consuming hobby, transcribing text into miniature books. Her 2- by 2½-inch original leather-bound books, handwritten in everything from Hebrew to Japanese, can sell for upward of $3,000.

Next year, Mitchell said she plans on traveling to Hawaii.

“Lilac queen was just one piece of my life, and I’ve never forgotten it, and I never will.” Mitchell said.