She's the OG; Spickerman marshals Cherry Queen prestige 81 years later
Original Cherry Queen Helen (Spickerman) Elton in 1941 sitting pm Queen Marie of Romania’s throne at the Maryhill Museum.
From The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce:
By Neita Cecil with additions by Tom Peterson
In 1941, the first-ever Northwest Cherry Festival was held, and Helen (Spickerman) Elton was named its Cherry Queen.
This year, at age 99, Elton is returning, this time as grand marshal.
Watch for her in the Cherry Fest annual parade slated for 10 a.m. in The Dalles on Saturday, April 23. The parade starts at Sixth and Webber streets (Burger King) and flows east down Third Street in downtown before heading north on Monroe Street at Optimist Printers and then returning west on Second Street to the U.S. Post office.
Elton’s reign as Cherry Queen 81 years ago came with quite a few perks. In her room, she’s got a picture of her sitting on Queen Marie of Romania’s throne at the Maryhill Museum, in a resplendent gown to fit the occasion.
She represented the Cherry Festival in the Portland Rose Parade, and had a front row seat at the burial in summer 1941 of a time capsule at Thompson Park.
Elton’s daughter, Diane Cates, has teased her mom that she wasn’t smiling in the picture for the time capsule burial. Her mom told her that was because it was an uncomfortably hot July day.
Asked to describe her mom, Cates said, “To me, she’s a saint. She’s sweet, easygoing, and has a great sense of humor. She’s just a happy, nice person. Everybody likes her.
“She’s still pretty. She has really beautiful skin and likes to fix up and has her nails done. I tell her she’s my beauty queen,” Cates said.
Elton was born at home, in late 1922, at 214 W. 10th St., in the front bedroom, Cates said. “They lived there before 10th Street went through all the way.”
When Elton was a student, The Dalles High School burned down, so she spent her high school years attending other schools while the new school was built. Her husband, Bill Elton, a year younger than her, was in the first class to graduate from the school in 1942, Cates said.
After he graduated, they got married, he headed off to fight in World War II and Helen worked at the Five and Dime, where the former JC Penney parking lot is now.
After the war, Bill joined the family business, becoming a third-generation cherry orchardist, building a house on the orchard on Pleasant Ridge Road. After 30 years, he got out of the business, selling to Leo Polehn after too many crop failures, Cates said.
Helen did the books for the orchard and “dedicated her life to taking care of her family,” Cates said. “My memory is that she worked so hard fixing our clothes. Ironed our clothes so nothing was wrinkled, even when they came out with Perma press.
“Living in the middle of an orchard, with the dust and dirt, she was constantly cleaning,” Cates said.
She was a faithful church-goer at Calvary Baptist Church and was active in the women’s missionary group and taught Sunday School.
She never learned to drive, but had a circle of friends who could take her places, Cates said.
This year isn’t even her first go-round as the grand marshal of the Cherry Festival. She and Bill were grand marshals years ago, and the family still has the magnet that went on their car.
And now she’ll have a second one to add to the collection.
To read about all the events going on at Cherry Fest click here.
