Pahokee native recounts Queen Elizabeth II's visit at Miami school
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John Williams had just a few days’ notice that the Queen of England would be visiting the middle school where he was principal.
While the monarch’s stop on her 10-day U.S. tour totaled less than an hour, the memories have lasted a lifetime.
“They say everybody’s entitled to 15 minutes of fame in their life. Well, I had 45 minutes of fame,” Williams said Friday.
Williams recounted that day 31 years ago following Queen Elizabeth II’s death on Thursday.
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“I was saddened by the passing of the queen. All of us are going to go sooner or later, but she was a wonderful, exciting person. An exciting leader. It meant a lot to not just the United Kingdom, not just Britain, the Commonwealth, but to the world,” he said.
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The 1991 trip would be the queen’s ninth visit to the United States, but her first to Florida. She arrived with her husband, the late Prince Philip, in Miami by plane on a Friday afternoon in May. The motorcade then shuttled her to Booker T. Washington Middle School in Overtown.
Williams, a Pahokee native, had been principal for almost three years. He wasn’t sure at the time why his school was selected, but he was elated nonetheless.
Booker T. Washington originally was the first Miami-Dade County high school open to Black students back in the 1920s. It became a middle school in the 1960s when the county desegregated schools.
Williams attended an all-Black school growing up: East Lake High School in Palm Beach County, where he was senior class president.
“The idea that a Black person (from the) poor country would come up in such (a way) that the queen would visit his school is kind of amazing,” he said.
Leading up to the queen’s visit, hallways received a fresh coat of paint, new sod was laid out and a red carpet was readied for the grand entrance, according to news reports at the time.
Williams wore a dark gray suit jacket, blue tie and a special pin that signified he could approach the queen. The then-65-year-old monarch wore a blue floral dress with a matching boater hat, white gloves and strings of pearls.
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The queen witnessed a 10-minute performance by the school’s 135-member marching band, which played high-energy popular hits such as Johnny Gill’s “Rub You the Right Way” and C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat,” as well as the patriotic “Rule Britannia” and “Oh Happy Day,” according to news reports.
She also watched a whirlwind 18-minute pageant called Magic City, which covered the history of Miami. The queen sat between Williams and then-county Mayor Steve Clark.
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Williams said he was nervous before her visit, but that speaking to her melted away any anxiety.
“She’s an excellent conversationalist. She was able to take a common person, a commoner like me, and make me feel at ease. There was no tension, and I feel that was her communication skills,” he said.
With three decades having passed, Williams said he didn’t remember everything he and the queen spoke about, but her calm and commanding presence left an impression.
One thing she said that took him by surprise was how she viewed her royal role.
“She saw being queen as a job. Just like I would go to my job as principal, she went to do her job being queen, but she was actually queen 24/7,” he said.
Williams and the queen walked the campus, with Prince Philip, the school’s superintendent and the county mayor just behind.
“For the rest of the day, everybody was excited. It was hard to get the kids calmed down after that,” he said.
Williams shook hands with presidents Ford, Reagan, Carter
Later that day, Williams and his wife were invited to a reception on the queen’s 412-foot royal yacht Britannia. Williams said he shook hands with three former presidents: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Also in attendance were then-Gov. Lawton Chiles, U.S. Sens. Bob Graham and Connie Mack, and Jeb Bush, according to a report from United Press International.
At the time, Williams didn't care for the taste of fish, but after trying salmon on the queen’s yacht, he fell in love with it, he said. He and his wife left before the dinner meant “for the real dignitaries,” he said.
The queen would leave Miami that night for a cruise around the Florida Keys before heading to Tampa on the next stop of her U.S. tour. There, she gave Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf an honorary knighthood, who headed Central Command and had led the first Gulf War campaign to oust invading Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Pahokee native recounts Queen Elizabeth II's quick trip to Florida and Miami school
