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It's quite an elaborate gown she's wearing.

The white velvet billows out to impossibly wide proportions, embroidered on the front with pioneer wagons, horses and olive branches and, for some reason, with ducks on the sleeves. There's a 30-foot golden train trailing behind her, and a ginormous bonnet that looks like it's about to swallow her head.

Such is what passed for queenly fashion back in 1947, when the Days of '47 parade marked its 50th birthday, as well as the 100th anniversary of the Mormon pioneers' entry into the Wasatch Valley.

The winner of the Days of '47 Royalty Pageant that special year was 18-year-old Calleen Robinson from American Fork, who was picked from a field of 38 young women in November 1946 at the Hotel Utah.

A Days of '47 parade queen is still chosen each year, but the honor came with much more pomp 70 years ago.

Robinson shot to instant local fame, riding in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year's Day 1947, and was crowned in an elaborate ceremony Jan. 15 at the Utah Capitol.

Photos from the day show the Rotunda packed to the walls with people ogling Robinson in all her regal finery.

As the old Salt Lake Telegram reported, Robinson was "The idol of the thousands who jammed the Capitol" in a spectacle "brilliant enough to stir anyone's pulse ... the charming brunette could not have commanded much more ceremony than a coronation of a ruler staged by a European power."

"The Capitol was packed long before the trumpeters from the Sugar House bugle corps signaled the start of the coronation march," The Telegram reported. "People from all walks of life were jammed together trying to see the performance. Some came in tuxedos, others in evening gowns and many thousands in plain dress. They crowded the third and fourth floor balconies to look down on the procession.

"Exceedingly lavish costumes worn by striking girls of complexions to match their gowns in the march of nations drew applause from the audience. Real enthusiasm was manifest when the gorgeous gowns came into view."

It must have been a bit overwhelming for Robinson. Or a lot.

Bill McKay, 68, the oldest of Robinson's three sons, said his mother was kind of shy and surprised that she won, but she would often tell him she was "really proud of being chosen and it was exciting to go to all the ceremonies," said McKay, who was born two years later. "She wasn't even going to enter, but her friends talked her into it."

There were a lot of parades around the state to celebrate the centennial, and Robinson rode in many of them, McKay said. She was an icon, to the point where a specially-made Virga doll was crafted in her likeness, complete with a mini version of her coronation gown.

The gown Robinson wore can be seen today at the Daughters of the Pioneers museum.

"It was one of her life highlights," said McKay. "She talked a lot about it."

A photo taken at the time of Robinson's reign shows her posing with Emma Lunt, who was the queen of the original Days of '47 parade in 1897. In the photo, Lunt is gazing proudly upon Robinson, appearing to give her a slight smile of approval.

Lunt's 1897 coronation was also an elaborate event, in a non-wired era that likely made it the social event of the year.

A report in The Tribune said a crowd of 8,000 attended the ceremony in the state that was only a year old.

"The audience immediately recognized Miss Emma Lunt, a Salt Lake girl, who is as beautiful as she is well-liked by her large circle of friends and acquaintances," read The Tribune story. "No Salt Lake girl could have been selected to more graciously enact the role. Her gown was an exquisite creation of creamy white satin with court train. ... She wore long white gloves, reaching to the small daintily puffed sleeves. A tiara of diamonds set off her gold-brown hair, and as she acknowledged the welcome of the concourse and smiled sweetly on those around her ... she looked every inch a queen, indeed."

Lunt died in 1959, and Robinson died in 2005.