Posted 8:58 am Monday, October 11, 2010
Rose Festival's Roots Go Back To 1933
By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer
Roses are synonymous with Tyler and vice versa. The Texas Rose Festival was created with little pomp in 1933 to cultivate a mystique for the area's growing industry and the city of Tyler, said grandson of the founding president of the Tyler Rose Fest-ival T.B. Ramey, Tom Ramey.
Staff Writer
Roses are synonymous with Tyler and vice versa. The Texas Rose Festival was created with little pomp in 1933 to cultivate a mystique for the area's growing industry and the city of Tyler, said grandson of the founding president of the Tyler Rose Fest-ival T.B. Ramey, Tom Ramey.
An $1,800 budget and countless volunteers brought the first festival of Tyler roses to fruition just six weeks after the idea sprang to life, Ramey said, but the impact for the city and the industry has been national, if not global.
Bob Bowman, an author and East Texas Historian, gave the city's ties to the rose bush perspective.
"Industry gave Tyler jobs. Oil has given Tyler wealth, but roses gave given Tyler fame," he said.
Seeds for the first festival were planted in Chicago in 1933.
The country was emerging from the Great Depression. Community leaders were men and women of another century, a Victorian century that moved at the pace of horse drawn carriages.
Held in Chicago, the World's Fair celebrated a "Century of Progress" and focused on international technological advancements. T.B. Ramey took his wife and son to the exposition.
On the grounds outside the fair, Ramey walked with his family and noticed a gardener working in a bed of roses. Ramey stopped to talk to the gardener and asked him where the roses came from.
"Texas," the gardener replied.
"Where in Texas?" Ramey asked.
"Where in Texas?" Ramey asked.
"You wouldn't know the town, but they grow the best, most beautiful roses in the world," the gardener quipped back. "A place called Tyler."
T.B. Ramey returned to Tyler busting with pride, his grandson said.
The rose industry had emerged as local farmer's answer to a fruit tree plague. By the early 1930s, fields of rose bushes mirrored the expansive fields of cotton and corn Southern farms produced.
Women of the Tyler Garden Club had taken notice of the growing industry and sought a way to promote the flower and the city. The Chamber of Commerce was visited by a delegation from the club insisting the city do something.
Months after returning from Chicago, T.B. Ramey received a phone call from the chamber. Ramey and the club joined forces in an attempt to put Tyler on the map.
Since then, staples from the first festival, a parade, the Queen's Tea, the ladies' luncheon, the coronation and of course the Rose Queen remained though locations may have changed.
The first luncheons and tea parties were held in familial homes, and the coronation was held in a picnic-setting of Bergfeld Park. Volunteers stuffed metal cans and Coke bottles full of roses and adorned shop windows along the parade route.
Ramey said the city's notoriety for its roses stems from the beginning.
Today, people know Tyler for two things, he said, "roses and Earl Campbell."
For 77 years, stories surrounding the festival ranged from tragedy to triumph. There have been accidents and injuries. There are always "hitches," Ramey said.
The festival was never a "cause," he said, just a way to showcase a unique city. Ramey has been a part of the festivities since he can remember and dared not recall when he first became involved with the annual event.
Ramey said public perception of the festival needs to return to those roots. He said its roots aren't about the "d-word."
"It's not about debutantes; it's about creating an identity for the community," Ramey said.
"The Tyler Rose Festival was created to do four things, to promote the city and the rose industry and to instill community pride and promote volunteerism."
The 77th Texas Rose Festival runs Thursday through Sunday.
