Profile: Kelly Keehan
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, April 07–For a week, she was a celebrity, hounded by the press, approached by strangers, feted by ambassadors.
Now Kelly Keehan of Danville is back to being a student.
“It was my ten seconds of fame,” joked Keehan. “Now I have to copy notes and get caught up.”
Keehan, the daughter of Edward and Cathy Keehan, was Princess New Hampshire, the state’s representative in the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC. Last week, she joined princesses from the 49 other states and 14 countries to dine with the First Lady, tour NASA, visit with Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and meet members of Congress.
“The diplomatic opportunities were very exciting,” said Keehan, who hopes to work for the State Department and eventually become an ambassador.
Unlike Miss America, the Cherry Blossom Festival is not a beauty contest. The Queen is chosen by the random spin of a wheel, and State Societies-essentially, booster clubs for residents of various states in Washington, D.C.-are free to elect their princess however they want.
Keehan, a sophomore international studies major at George Washington University, was picked because she stood out as “motivated, interested in foreign affairs, and well-spoken,” said Virginia Wilbert of Nashua, secretary of the New Hampshire State Society and last year’s state princess.
“She’s mature enough to go abroad and represent us as an ambassador,” said Wilbert, an aide in Congressman Charles F. Bass, R-Peterborough’s office. Keehan spent last semester in Hong Kong, did a High School exchange with Germany and speaks French, German, Spanish, and a little Chinese. At age 13, she served as a student ambassador to Australia and New Zealand through a “People to People” exchange.
Washington’s two-week Cherry Blossom festival celebrates Japan’s gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees to Washington, D.C. in 1912, and the Queen travels to Japan for two weeks to meet with national and local dignitaries.
Wilbert said the “princess” name has been maintained out of respect for a sister festival in Japan. The Japanese Cherry Blossom Queen attends the Washington festival, and many of the events-such as the lantern lighting society, the sake and sushi reception, and the reception at the Japanese ambassador’s home-are centered around cross-cultural exchange.
“There is such a rich tradition behind this, with the history of diplomatic relations between us and Japan, said Martha Marrapese, a member of the New Hampshire State Society and New Hampshire’s 1986 Cherry Blossom Princess.
But while the Festival bulletin explicitly states that the Festival is NOT a beauty pageant, the distinction is lost on many tourists, who would see the sashes and ask “are you Miss America, are you Miss New Hampshire,” Keehan said.
“There are a surprising number of people asking for photographs,” she said.
Keehan, with her small entourage of local reporters and photographers, looked like even more the celebrity than the average princess. “Everybody kept asking me ‘why are people following you, what did you do.’”
Then there was the police escort. Like the President’s motorcade, the princess’ twin tour buses were escorted everywhere by officers on motorcycles and cars. The escort “lets us run red lightsáand drive in the wrong lane,” Keehan reported enthusiastically.
“I brought a video camera to film it” she said.
From Sunday through Thursday last week, Keehan and the other princesses were rushed from meetings, to luncheons, to tours. On Friday, they were primped and pampered, prepared for the evening’s ball. Keehan, who has short hair, was given what her stylist calls a “funky” do, spiky and tousled, with twists embellished by pearls.
“You are going to be our funky princess,” stylist Dawn promised. “Very, very modern.”
Later, Keehan confided that “My mom is going to ask ‘what happened to your hair.’á.But I like it.”
According to Keehan, there were few prima donnas at the festival, though “some of the girls are deb,” means debutante. “You can tell who is being nice because they’ve been taught to be nice, to be Miss Congeniality, and who is sincere,” she said.
Friday night, Keehan attended the ball with Sung Lee, a fellow sophomore from George Washington University. Other princesses were escorted by military dates from the US Naval Academy. The program provided them with a form that allowed them to specify height and any other criteria for their military date.
One princess asked for “Prince Charming,” the princesses reported.
In the end, the Queen title went to Elizabeth O’Connor, the princess from Connecticut. She and runner-up Leslie Braitsch of Virginia rode on the honorary float in Saturday’s closing parade. .
“We all wanted to be runner-up so we could ride on the float,” said Keehan, who walked with the other princesses. “Our feet hurt.”
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
