Margaret Huntley Obituary; Longest Living ‘Rose Queen’ Margaret Huntley Main, Dies At 102.

Margaret Jayne Huntley Main, the 1940 Rose Queen of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, passed away at the age of 102.

The Tournament of Roses announced the passing of Auburn’s longest-living Rose Queen.

Bob Miller, the 2022 Tournament of Roses president, surprised Main two years ago on her 100th birthday with 100 roses, a birthday cake, and her 1940 crown—which was taken out of the archives to wear at a Zoom birthday celebration.

Main claimed at the time that ever since she watched her first procession when she was five years old, she had dreamed of becoming a Rose Queen.

“I was exactly five and a half when I saw my first tournament. ‘Margaret Jane, there’s more to the procession than the queen,’ my father remarked as he watched the queen walk down the street. Gaze down this way,” she recalled. “But he was wrong.”

In 1939, while attending Pasadena Junior College, she received the title of Rose Queen, an event that nearly moved her to tears.

Main remembered thinking, “These people see something that I didn’t know was there.”

She participated in the Rose Parade on multiple occasions, first as a rider on the yearly Kodak float constructed for previous Rose Queens and then as a rider on the City of Roseville float in 2009.

Officials from the tournament said that Main has the unique distinction of having met every Rose Queen, from the first in 1905 until the 2020 queen.

It was stated by the Tournament of Roses that Main is “a timeless symbol of grace, (and) will forever adorn the history of the Rose Parade.”

Linda Main Hack, her daughter, and her husband Robert Main predeceased Main. Her sister Alyce Main Levy, sons Martin Main of Grass Valley and John Main of Boulder City, Nevada, daughter Sandra Main of Auburn, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren survive her.