Sean C. Morgan
2003 Calapooia Roundup Duchess Teri Rush was crowned the 2004 queen Saturday evening at the rode grounds.
“I’m still shaking a little,” Queen Teri said after the coronation. “Nerves, I guess, excitement and adrenaline.”
Queen Teri said she was “excited, extremely overwhelmed. I almost felt like I was going to cry.”
Queen Teri will preside over the Calapooia Roundup and Rodeo July 9-11. She is joined by First Princess Amanda Hilburn and princesses Megan MacDougal and Courtney Walker.
Queen Teri was named Miss Congeniality by the court and also received the horsemanship award. Princess Megan was named Miss Photogenic and Miss Appearance. Princess Courtney received a $100 scholarship for selling the most tickets to the coronation dinner.
“She’s going to be an awesome queen,” rodeo court adviser Kellie Kem said. “She’s so helpful to the girls, and she’s so sweet. She’s an inspiration to future rodeo queens. She’s become a big part of our family. All the girls are.”
“Every girl up there is just as good,” Queen Teri said. “And I love each and every one just the same. All of the girls deserve it. I would have been proud of any one of the girls who go it.”
Before the coronation ceremony, they were all shaking the same way and worrying about whether they would deliver their speeches right, Queen Teri said. “All of the girls are very sweet.”
They all get a long, Queen Teri said, and being on the court is like being with a bunch of friends.
This is Queen Teri’s second year on the court. Last year, she felt like the junior princess. This year she feels like the old one.
Queen Teri is a senior at Lebanon High School. She works at Hasty Freeze She plans to enter the dual enrollment program at Linn-Benton Community College and Oregon State University where she will study nursing and go to work in pediatrics.
In the coming weeks, Queen Teri will lead the court in promoting the Calapooia Roundup and Rodeo at other parades and events. Next week is Scio followed by a week off then Salem and the Strawberry Parade in Lebanon.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Queen Teri said. “I’ve wanted this ever since I was about four years old.”
That’s when her parents put her on her first horse. Her feet didn’t even reach the stirrups.
Eugene Queen Tami Zucker, former Sweet Home Queen crowned Queen Rush.
Queen Teri looks to Queen Tami for inspiration. She wants to do the “best I can to promote the rodeo, like Tami did. She’s such an excellent role model.”
Queen Teri will ride her quarter horse mare, Sugar, in the rodeo.
The girls were interviewed on Friday at the Pizza Factory in Lebanon. Saturday, they gave speeches and answered impromptu questions at the rodeo grounds.
Queen Teri was asked what she would tell a young girl who wanted to be rodeo queen.
She said she would tell the girl, “I was just like her when I was a little kid.”
Then she would tell them to strive to be different and stand out, to show off who they are. Like Miss America, the winner needs something that sets them apart and makes them different from the others.
“Tonight it was my skirt,” Queen Teri said of her own differences. “Probably I have a bigger mouth than some of them, and I’m definitely one of the blondes.”