Queen Elizabeth’s 1991 Trip to Miami Remembered – NBC 6 South Florida
The news of the passing of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at age 96 Thursday has left people across the globe in mourning.
The monarch’s death after seven decades on the throne was also being felt in South Florida, where she paid a special visit more than 30 years ago.
Elizabeth made a stop in Miami on May 17, 1991, during a whirlwind 10-day trip to the United States that included stops in Washington, D.C., Texas and Kentucky.
The queen, who’d turned 65 a month earlier, arrived at Miami International Airport from Washington on the Concorde supersonic jetliner that afternoon, the Miami Herald reported.
Getty Images Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II visit Booker T. Washington Middle School in Miami, Florida. The Royal couple is in Miami as part of Queen Elizabeth’s state visit to the United States in May 1991. (Photo by �� Steve Starr/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
On her schedule that day was a stop at Booker T. Washington Middle School in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, where she heard a rendition of C+C Music Factory’s hit “Gonna Make You Sweat” along with traditional fare such as “Rule Britannia” in the school auditorium.
The queen, with Prince Philip at her side, briefly spoke with the school performers afterwards.
“She’s really kind of down to earth,” then-Principal John Williams, who was by the monarch’s side during her school visit, told the Associated Press. “She’s easy to talk to.”
Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II visits Booker T. Washington Middle School in Miami, Florida. The Queen is in Miami as part of her state visit to the United States in May 1991. (Photo by �� Steve Starr/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
At a brief garden party at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens along Biscayne Bay, the queen met with VIPs, regular folks and community leaders, including then-Mayor Xavier Suarez and Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the Everglades preservation pioneer who was 101 years old at the time.
Protesters were also there for the queen’s tour, including one group who was protesting the city’s snub of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela when he visited the previous June. City leaders didn’t meet with Mandela because of his ties with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
After the Vizcaya stop, Elizabeth and Philip headed to Biscayne Bay where the 412-foot royal yacht Britannia hosted a dinner party for guests including former presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.
Getty Images Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is welcomed by 9-year-old girl Eliza Goldman at the Viscaya Museum in Miami on May 17, 1991.
Members of the Irish American Unity Conference held their own small protest across the water from the yacht.
After dinner and a black-tie reception attended by business, political and arts leaders, the guests went to the yacht’s top decks for a traditional royal farewell to the city.
The royal band played patriotic songs, including the national anthems of both nations, and the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack were lowered.
Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II attends a ceremony at Booker T. Washington Middle School in Miami, Florida. British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd applauds behind her. Queen Elizabeth is in Miami as part of her state visit to the United States in May 1991. (Photo by �� Steve Starr/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
After departing Miami, the yacht went to the Florida Keys and made stops at Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson, about 70 miles west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico.
Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau In this Saturday, May 18, 1991, file photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, National Park Service ranger Matt Fagan, left, tours Queen Elizabeth II, center, and Prince Philip, right, around Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys.
The yacht then went on to Tampa, where Elizabeth met with U.S. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf to bestow an honorary knighthood for his leadership in routing the Iraqi army from Kuwait.
