The Air Force theme song’s opening line – “Off we go into the wild blue yonder/Climbing high into the sun” – has been going ’round and ’round in debutante Solange Eddy’s head since the day she learned she had won an appointment to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
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Yet the words also apply to the 17 others presented at the 41st Debutante Ball hosted by Sigma Gamma Rho sorority’s Beta Rho Sigma chapter. In a few weeks they too will leave the comfort and familiarity of their homes and schools for the great unknown: the challenges and opportunities of college life.
Eddy, a graduate of George Washington High School’s elite International Baccalaureate program, sees her appointment as “a great steppingstone.”
She plans on attending the AFA, putting in the required active duty and then attending graduate school. “My future is in politics,” she declares. “Watch for me in the 2034 presidential race!”
At GW, Eddy was vice president of the student council, swim team captain, and a member of the African American Club and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She’s the first debutante in her family, but she was comfortable with the pomp and ceremony thanks to having participated in a coming-of-age ritual typical in her father, Robert’s, native Trinidad.
Phaedra Luckett, daughter of Theodore and Veronica Luckett and a graduate of Montbello High, was crowned Queen of the Debutantes by the 2004 titleholder, Da’Janai Taylor Woods, a student at Langston University in Oklahoma. Luckett, a cheerleader and Drama Club member, will join her at Langston.
Being a debutante has been fun, Luckett added, especially “getting all dressed up for the ball.” The identity of the queen is not revealed until the end of the presentation ceremony, so she had no way of knowing her next words – “I had so much fun that I wish I could do it again next year” – would come true.
Dr. Paleri Mann, assisted by the sub-debutantes of 2005, presented other awards to Solange Eddy, highest grade-point average; ZhaZha Witt and Brittany Frierson, essay contest winners; and Rashinda Lee, Rhoer of the Year. Allison Goodwin was named Miss Congeniality, while sister Ashley was recognized for 280 hours of community service in her debutante year.
The presentation of debutantes was part of a dinner ceremony chaired by Gretta Burroughs and held at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. Wil Alston, vice president of the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce, and wife Roz were the commentators. 2005 also was the year the chapter presented its first white debutante.
Kyla Andrew, whose foster mother, Shawnetta Madden, is president of Beta Rho Sigma, was honored as the event’s talent winner for her delivery of the closing argument from “To Kill a Mockingbird.” She was active in Overland High theater and will study psychology at the University of Northern Colorado.
Like Andrew, fellow Overland alum Shayla Johnson has an interest in the performing arts and will attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. “I’ve been acting my whole life,” Johnson said, adding she’s hoping to be an actress or director.
Jasmine Rowe, who wants to be a sports or entertainment lawyer, was a cheerleader, yearbook staff member and rugby player at East High. Her favorite debutante activities were being a part of the Martin Luther King Day Marade and helping with a food drive.
Angelle Craddolph, whose grandmother had been a debutante, is one of five debs who’ll be attending college in North Carolina; she’ll be premed at the historically black St. Augustine’s in Raleigh.
Frierson, who’ll be premed at Oral Roberts University, was home-schooled (“The curriculum is more advanced than that in public schools”) while at the same time eligible to compete on sports teams at Montbello, where she became district champion in shot put. She was able to travel extensively with her parents, evangelist Ronald and Pamela Frierson.
Frierson shared the debutante experience with her aunt, Ashley Frierson, (“My dad’s little sister”), a graduate of George Washington High who is enrolling at UNC’s School of Nursing. Ashley wants to be a nurse-practitioner and serve the poor in India.
KenDara Peoples, a graduate of Dakota Ridge High, was right at home at the site of the ball. “I had an internship here at the Adam’s Mark,” she said, adding that she is going for a degree in hotel management from Hastings College in Nebraska.
Also making their debuts were Anastasia Gresham and DeJa Hudson, both honor students at Montbello; Christin Groves, whose mother, Carnita Groves, is president of the Denver/Rocky Mountain Association of Black Psychologists; Brittany Harris, already enrolled at Community College of Denver; and Laparish McKinney, who wants to be an attorney. “With Johnnie Cochran gone, our community needs me.”
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
