Word: tongas
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...rains heavily in Tonga, in the warm South Pacific. Thus it did not seem unusual to Tonga's Queen Salote* that it should be raining in London on coronation day. Instead of withdrawing into the shelter of her coach like most notables in the long procession from Westminster Abbey, Queen Salote sat in the drenching downpour, a massive (6 ft. 3 in., 280 Ibs.), broad-faced woman in red robes and a headdress from which two feathers stuck stiffly upright; she beamed, waved, mopped rain from her face with a handkerchief, beamed again. The soaked, footsore crowd...
Linger longer, Queen of Tonga...
From then on. the Queen of Tonga was a hit wherever she went. Her street clothes were unremarkable, her manner motherly and informal, but she maintained an air of dignity and genuine queenliness. She turned up at the ballet to see Margot Fonteyn dance Sleeping Beauty, at Lord's to watch the cricket, hefted babies at the Chelsea welfare center, inspected Canterbury and Cambridge...
...before 9 a.m., the first processions arrived: the Lord Mayor of London and the Speaker of the House of Commons; the representatives of 74 foreign powers, including General George C. Marshall and Russia's Jacob Malik; the Sultans of Zanzibar, Perak and Selangor; Her Majesty, the Queen of Tonga. The Dukes of Gloucester and Kent entered and took up positions in the chancel. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, each with her ladies in waiting, moved down the aisle and took their privileged places. Outside, and ever nearer, came the sound of horses' hooves on Parliament Square...
...replica of the claw-hammered coat and gold-striped trousers worn by his father for the coronation of Edward VII, the chief made the first 300 miles of the trip to London by barge, the rest by Constellation. Also arriving: Queen Salote Tupou of the Pacific Island protectorate of Tonga, one of the three reigning queens in the world (the others: Britain's Elizabeth, the Netherlands' Juliana), and definitely the largest (6 ft. 3 in., 280 lbs.). Having left the heaviest crown in the world back home in Tonga, she was undecided what kind of hat to wear...