1951 Daffodil Queen looks back at reign, parade

It’s been more than 60 years since Elaine Joy (Chipps) Mahaffie was crowned Daffodil Festival Queen, but her relatives say she still remembers her royal wave.

Elaine smiled and laughed when her daughter-in-law, Debbie Mahaffie, brought it up at Elaine’s home at Silver Creek Retirement and Assisted Living Community on South Hill.

“(She) taught it to (her) granddaughters,” Debbie said.

Elaine first learned that wave when she was 17 and a senior at Puyallup High School, the year she was chosen as Daffodil Queen. Atop a float adorned with daffodils and bearing her name on the front of it, she waved at crowds that lined the streets of Puyallup for the 18th annual Daffodil Festival Parade.

According to articles printed by The News Tribune that Elaine and her husband, Joe, have kept in an album, there were 15 million daffodils used throughout the entirety of that festival — Elaine’s float included.

“It was a beautiful float,” Elaine said. “People would work so hard on that float. Sometimes it would take all night.”

“They used to have a lot more daffodils on the floats,” added Pat Mahaffie, Elaine’s son.

Now, daffodil farms are all but gone in the Puyallup area. It’s just one of the changes that Elaine, now 83, has seen as she’s spent her life living in the Puyallup community.

“As the years went on, the festival changed,” Elaine said. “It became bigger and encompassed more things. The festival grew just like everything else does.”

Elaine was one of five girls vying to represent Puyallup High as Daffodil Princess. Elaine was selected as a Daffodil Princess, along with Doloris Robinson from Tacoma and Belle Huntington from Sumner. At that time, there were only three princesses, compared to the 23 in this year’s festival.

“All three (cities) contributed to the festival and were very active in it,” Elaine said. “That’s where the (flower) bulbs were grown. The growers sponsored a lot of the festival.”

After rounds of questions from reporters, Elaine became Daffodil Queen. With the title came various responsibilities — and opportunities.

As Daffodil Queen, Elaine got to fly to Hollywood, California in an airplane for the first time. She was featured on radio and met political figures and some celebrities, including movie and television star Leo Carrillo, who was known for his roles in Viva Villa!, The Cisco Kid, Phantom of the Opera (1943) and many others.

“When you’re young, you’re really into that,” Elaine said. “I thought I was lucky. So many girls (were) nervous, but I wasn’t, so I enjoyed it.”

After graduating from Puyallup High, Elaine worked in some offices and a bank and married her high school sweetheart, Joe, in 1952. As years passed, she stayed in Puyallup and continued to bring her three children, and eventually, her grandchildren, to the Daffodil Parade.

For a long time, Elaine stayed friends with the other princesses.

“We stayed friends until we had kids (and) things got busy,” Elaine said.

But she still thinks about them sometimes, as well as her experience as Daffodil Queen.

“I think (the festival) was a good thing to have because it embraced all people,” Elaine said. “It was really good to get people to come and see the Valley. It was beautiful when (the daffodils) were all blooming.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 9:37 AM with the headline "1951 Daffodil Queen looks back at reign, parade."