Reese Jaureguy announced as 2024 Belle representing Shandon area
By Maylia Baird
Guest Contributor
PASO ROBLES — The annual Pioneer Royalty Dinner was an intimate gathering at the Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles on Sunday, Aug. 18. The event was by reservation only, so there were tables filled with family and close friends of the chosen Marshal, Queen, and Belle nominees of the upcoming 94th annual Pioneer Day Parade. On Sunday, guests explained more about the Queen and Marshal’s family history and later officially announced Reese Jaureguy as this year’s Belle, representing the Shandon area.
Pioneer Day and all the events leading up to it are important to Paso Roblans because it recognizes families who have lived here for generations. Choosing a Marshal and Queen honors those who have deeply planted roots in the community while choosing a Belle and her attendants gives young women a chance to remember their ancestors and explore more of their family history.
This year’s chosen Queen is Bonnie Cary Thorndyke. She is related to a long line of pioneer families, such as the Allen, Forbes, Cox, Frazier, Beck, and Smith families. She is very proud of her heritage and loves that she gets to call Paso Robles her home. Thorndyke has lived here since 1947, when she moved from Fresno. During her younger years, she loved anything to do with horses, from grooming to riding in horse shows for fun.
When asked what being honored as Pioneer Day royalty means to her, she told Paso Robles Press, “It means an awful lot because my mother was Queen years ago, in 2003.”
This parade is a big deal to Thorndyke and many of her family members because they have been attending their whole lives. It’s a way for them to spend time with their relatives — many of which come from out of town to attend the parade — and honor their heritage.
Richard “Dick” Woodland was chosen as this year’s Marshal. He was born in Paso Robles during World War II in 1943 and graduated from Paso Robles High in 1960. Woodland has always had a love for cars and racing. He didn’t stay in college at Fresno State for long since he was more interested in automobile racing, and he left to follow his dream.Woodland has had a lot of involvement with Paso Robles and achieved many things here. He donated land to the city to help encourage it to build the original Niblick Bridge and again when they expanded it to four lanes. In the 1990s, hedeveloped the Woodland Plaza I shopping center, where Albertsons is located, and later the Walmart shopping center. He is honored to be recognized and chosen as this year’s Marshal, as he loves and cares about this town very much.
“What can I say, it’s a feeling of acceptance, friendship,” Woodland said during his speech, adding humorously, “and looking forward to the rest of the meals that come with this program.”
Jaureguy was officially announced as the 2024 Pioneer Day Belle on Sunday, representing the Shandon area. Her related pioneer families are Grove, Pemberton, Moss, and Guilford.
The Belle attendants who will join Jaureguy in the parade are:
- Adelaida Coelho — Adelaida
- Ava Friedling — Estrella
- Kiana Martinez — LaPanza
- Kyhlah McKee — Hog Canyon
- Lindsay Moffatt — Adelaida
- Cassidy Heer — Estrella
Belles and their attendants are young ladies representing a local pioneer family that came to the area prior to World War II. They are usually high school seniors, and their families have deep-rooted connections in the Paso Robles community. Belle and attendants represent the different areas that make up the Paso Robles Area and can vary each year. Areas often represented are Carissa Plains, Creston, Parkfield, Templeton, Adelaida, Linne Township, Paso Robles, San Miguel, and so many more.
Jaureguy ’s great-great-grandmother Dora Issak was born in Templeton in 1880. Dora and Jesse Grove were married in Shandon in 1906. There they had a son named Earl Grove, who was born in 1916. Earl and his wife, Mary, are Jaureguy ’s great-grandparents. Her great-great-grandmother, La Violette Lynn, moved to the area from Nebraska in 1914 and graduated from Templeton High School in 1920. Jaureguy’s great-great grandfather A.D Moss moved from Kansas to Paso Robles in 1918.
A.D and La Violette Moss had a daughter named Margaret, who was Jaureguy ’s great-grandmother. Margaret Moss married Lynn Methena and together they raised two children, Allan and Sharon. Sharon Methena is Reese’s grandmother. Margaret married Bill Pemberton and they had a son, Billy Pemberton. Bill’s grandparents Charles and Mary Guilford moved to Creston in 1903 and there had a daughter named Clara who was born in 1915.
Her maternal grandfather, Donald Grove, was born and raised in Shandon, and her grandmother, Sharon Grove, is a lifelong resident of Paso Robles. Her paternal grandparents are JB and Virginia Jaureguy, who married in late 1971. JBwas born in France but in 1962 immigrated to the U.S. Virginia was born in Bakersfield and moved to Paso in 1970. Together they had three children, one of which is Reese’s father, Robert. Both of Reese’s parents were born and raised in Paso.
Jaureguy is a senior at Paso Robles High and shows livestock competitively all over the state. She told Paso Robles Press, “It’s such an honor to be named the Belle. Hopefully, one day, my own kids will do it, and I can share it with them.”
For more information on the Pioneer Day Parade and its upcoming festivities, visit pasoroblespioneerday.org.
Feature Image: Reese Jaureguy (third from left), the 2024 Pioneer Day Queen, representing Shandon, poses with her court (from left): Lindsay Moffatt, representing Adelaida; Kyhlah McKee, Hog Canyon; Adelaida Coelho, Adelaida; Cassidy Heer, Estrella; Kiana Martinez, La Panza; and Ava Friedling, Estrella. Photo by Derek Luff
