Reporter’s Notebook | Rose Queen Bella Ballard Personifies the Traditions of 104 Years of Tournament Royalty in Pasadena

Reflecting on Tuesday’s selection of 17-year-old Bella Ballard of Altadena as the 104th Rose Queen, I recalled the striking memory and impression I had of her at the Royal Court announcement two weeks ago when she was named a Princess. 

This is a young woman mature beyond her years, I thought. Her simple grace and assuredness could lead her to a reign as Queen, I confess to thinking.

Reappearing on stage Tuesday immediately after the announcement of her selection and wearing her dramatic Rose Queen gown before a gaggle of photographers and reporters clamoring for her attention, she was clearly thrilled but still cool and focused. 

“I definitely never thought I’d be here,” Queen Bella told me immediately after her coronation, “but as I’ve gone through this process and met all the people at the Tournament of Roses, and met my new sisters, I feel so very welcomed and I’m so happy to be here.”

She also encouraged other young would-be Rose Queens to “Definitely don’t be afraid, just put yourself out there even if it may seem like a new and strange experience — there’s no harm in trying.”

Ballard, a senior at the Ogburn Distance Learning School, is an avid soccer player and coach, working with Chelsea football club and the Santa Clarita Blue Heat football club, as well as the West Coast football club. She is also a street soccer player at Venice Beach football club and a tennis player at the Royal Circle and Flint Canyon tennis clubs.

The daughter of Joseph and Angela Ballard, she will be attending Yale in the fall with an interest in studying economics, law or astrophysics. Of course she will.

Hallie Woods, the first Rose Queen in 1905, began the tradition of queens ever since, from May Sutton, the 1908 queen, the first American player to win the singles title at Wimbledon, to the 2000 queen Sophia Bush, an actor who has been nominated for a People’s choice award for her role on “Chicago PD.”

1940 Rose Queen Margaret Huntley Main is the longest-living queen at 101 years old.  Main watched Ballard be crowned live on the Tournament of Roses YouTube broadcast from her home in Northern California.

During the coronation ceremony, Ballard donned the Mikimoto Rose Queen crown, which features more than 600 cultured pearls, and 6 carats of diamonds, presented by Tournament of Roses president Amy Wainscott. 

Ballard and the 2023 Royal Court will attend more than 100 community and media functions as ambassadors for the Tournament of Roses, the Pasadena community, and the greater Los Angeles area. Each royal court member will also receive a $7,500 educational scholarship from the Pasadena Tournament of Roses.

I saw it coming.