Sara Lee Anderson
By MIKE JOHNSTON senior writer
ELLENSBURG—It’s not often that someone can fit into the same clothes she wore as a young adult 61 years ago.
But that’s just what the 1949 rodeo queen, Sara Lee Anderson O’Connor, 79, did in this year’s Ellensburg Rodeo Parade.
O’Connor, now from the Port Angeles area, said the white, doe-skin leather Western outfit is in perfect condition, “just like the day I first wore it in 1949.”
“When I got it out to get ready to come to Ellensburg, I thought, ‘I sure hope I can squeeze into it,'” O’Connor said. “And you know, I could still get into it. Oh, it was just a little tight around the waist, but otherwise it fit perfectly. I just inhaled a bit deeper.”
She’s been on horseback in the parade as past rodeo royalty five or six times since her reign, yet wearing her queen’s outfit in the Sept. 4 parade marked a special event in her life: it was the last time she plans to ride a horse in the parade.
“I called it my last ride,” O’Connor said last week. “It was time to hang up my hat.”
She stressed she’ll still come to the rodeo, which she called “one of the best in the nation.”…(read more)
On The Rodeo Road 