The Eternal Doo Dah

Lily Hobge always wanted to be queen of the Doo Dah Parade.

On Wednesday, in keeping with the unconventional traditions of the event, a long-running spoof of the Tournament of Roses Parade, her wish was honored--posthumously. Her husband, holding a box containing the ashes of his deceased wife, entered her into the tryouts for Doo Dah Parade queen.

Although judges chose another entrant to serve as official queen of the irreverent parade, they responded to Hobge’s unusual entry by creating a new honorary title for his late wife, naming her “Queen of the Hereafter.”

“She always wanted to [be queen of the Doo Dah Parade], but never got the courage to,” Claude Hobge said just before the tryouts. “Maybe I can make her wish come true.”

The tryouts had all the irreverent trimmings that people have come to expect of the Doo Dah events.

But Lily Hobge’s coronation added a new degree of surrealism and a touch of sentimentalism to the event.

“I think that represents the true cutting edge of Doo Dahness,” said Philip Koebel, a local resident watching the tryouts. “It is brilliant.”

Earlier in the afternoon, as the contestants, judges, organizers and a small number of onlookers gathered for the event, Hobge had sat stoically, clutching a wicker tray with a portrait of his wife of 55 years and a box with her ashes.

The couple moved to Sierra Madre from the East Coast in 1980. Lily Hobge died last February.

When Hobge’s turn came to address the judges, he made his way slowly to the microphone.

“I’m here on the part of my beautiful wife, Lily,” said Hobge, dressed neatly in a tie and checked jacket. “We always enjoyed the Doo Dah Parade and one of her last wishes was to be queen. And she is in this box.”

The small crowd applauded and cheered. Hobge stood still.

He is “a man that truly loved his wife,” said Tim Warren, who drove Hobge to the event. Hobge told him this would be the first year that the couple would not be watching the Doo Dah Parade together.

There were 17 entries for queen, an assortment of eccentric exhibitionists that included the likes of El Virus, a drag version of Halloween icon Elvira.

In the end, the judges picked a group entry called Juliarana and the Ladies in Waiting, a mother and daughter pair dressed as Siamese twins accompanied by two men dressed in baby blue plastic wraps and platinum blond wigs. They will be the official queens of the 1997 Doo Dah Parade.

Although Lily Hobge was not crowned the official queen, the honorary title did not faze Hobge, who promised he will parade along with his wife’s ashes Nov. 23 in Old Pasadena.

“She got her wish,” Hobge said. “She will be happy.”