Nearly 40 years ago, Sacramento welcomed Queen Elizabeth II to California’s capital
Queen Elizabeth II, the world’s longest reigning monarch, has died at 96.
The memories of the woman who held the British throne for 70 years, are many as Queen Elizabeth steered Great Britain and the royal family through an ever-changing world while overcoming family scandal and personal tragedy.
“Queen Elizabeth was the rock on which modern Britain was built,” British Prime Minister Liz Truss said in a televised address upon the monarch’s death earlier Thursday.
In Sacramento, Queen Elizabeth II will most likely be remembered as the kindly, curious visitor who partook in that most Sacramentan of rituals: a tour of Sutter’s Fort. The year was 1983.
Northern California had been lashed by a series of storms. A tornado touched down near Roseville the day previous, The Sacramento Bee reported, and Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, were in the Golden State on a whirlwind tour of the Pacific Coast.
The royal couple was feted in regal style the previous day in San Francisco, escorted by then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein, serenaded by Tony Bennett, and accompanied by President Ronald and First Lady Nancy Reagan, and Gov. George and Gloria Deukmejian during a sumptuous state dinner.
In Sacramento, tens of thousands of spectators — and more than a few protesters — awaited the Queen’s first-ever visit to California’s capital, roaring their welcome as Her Majesty and Prince Phillip emerged from a black stretch limousine for the walk-through at Sutter’s Fort in midtown.
The Bee’s headline: “A Capital Welcome For Her Majesty.”
Bee columnist Herb Michelson captured the scene — and Sacramento’s mood — that day.
“For four right – on-the-button hours Friday, Sacramento was alive with the sound of Queen. It was a holiday and a picnic and a tea party.”
The visit was only four hours. There were but two stops: Sutter’s Fort and the California state Capitol, where some 5,000 spectators flooded its west steps.
“In those two locales, the Queen saw touches of the old West and the new — a sweeping leap from ragged, fierce looking mountain men in the circa 1846 fort to the elegantly refurbished statehouse where some of Gov. (George) Deukmejian’s heftiest financial contributors shared a palate-pleasing seafood lunch,” Bee staff writer Ronald W. Powell wrote.
The Queen was “an excellent visitor” that day to the fort and “very curious,” the living history actor who portrayed Capt. John Sutter, remarked afterward to KCRA.
Prince Phillip, the lively counter to the reserved Queen Elizabeth spotted bearded mountain man Harry Dennis of Calaveras County take a swig from his jug on the couple’s first stop at Sutter’s Fort. Prince Philip asked what he was drinking.
He wasn’t satisfied when the answer was water.
“You really ought to have rum or Scotch,” said the prince.
There had been grumbling. Sacramento mayor R. Burnett Miller said he and the city of Sacramento had been snubbed by organizers of the royal tour. The mayor and local officials had limited roles in the Queen’s visit. San Francisco Assemblyman Art Agnos called the Queen’s Capital visit “an extraordinary waste of money.”
One seasoned solon, Southland Assemblyman Dick Floyd, puffed on a cigar and nodded toward his colleagues in the reception line as he told a Bee reporter, “The whole damn bunch is only here because of their per diems.”
But Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, after escorting the Queen into the Assembly chambers, told Her Majesty that California lawmakers “view you as a jewel. We are rich by your presence and we do wish you well.”
And for all the pomp and circumstance, the crowds and the cheers of that day, it was a child’s first glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, that resonates today.
“When I saw their limousine, I got all butterflies in my stomach because I was so excited,” a 10-year-old Roxanne Allen, told The Bee. Asked what she thought of the queen, young Roxanne said, “She’s special.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 2:09 PM.
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