The only reason she’s not an ideal candidate for the column is that she really hasn’t done much that most people would know. Wikipedia lists her as a “television personality.” I vaguely remember some of the commercials she did when I was a child; I never really watched Good Morning America, so I wouldn’t have seen her on it. But this is the first year that I cannot share my New Year’s Day with her in my entire life, leaving aside years when I just didn’t have the television access, and I’m a bit at loose ends. I had the idea to write about Stephanie Edwards for today, and I knew my Southern Californian friends would all appreciate the reference.

For almost my entire life, the new year has started with Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards perched high above Colorado Boulevard, hosting the Tournament of Roses Parade. (Only folks from away call it the Rose Bowl Parade; the parade came first, and in one year, the sporting event was chariot races.) Bob was Bob; everyone knows Bob Eubanks. At least everyone my age or older. But Stephanie was ours, and we had her on the first of January every year—the second, in years where the first fell on a Sunday. And I honestly liked her better.

The biggest controversy I can name in Tournament history was in 2006, when KTLA gave Bob a new cohost (Michaela Pereira) while putting Stephanie as an “on the street reporter” that they cut to on occasion. It did not help that 2006 was one of the few times when it rained on the Rose Parade. They tried to sell it as “they’re all equal,” but it was Stephanie out there in the rain, and it was generally believed that she was out there in the rain because she was an older woman, and they were trading her in on a younger one. It’s hard not to see it that way, honestly, and after a couple of years, KTLA caved to pressure. Which is why, when they announced that Bob and Stephanie were retiring, they spent so much time assuring us that it was their choice.

Okay. So I’m writing a tribute to the woman because of one job she’s held one day a year, and even I barely remember anything else she’s done. That’s fair. (Though I’d really like to see the movie version of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, where she plays a reporter.) Her IMDb page is one of the scantiest of anyone we’ve covered. But I’m not sure it’s possible to convey to people how iconic she was to me growing up. It wasn’t just that, at the time, KTLA was the only channel providing Parade coverage with no commercial interruption; it was that no one did it better than Bob and Stephanie. Even HGTV wasn’t as good as Stephanie at giving me the information I wanted on the flowers covering those floats.

I’ve honestly never been sure she really liked Bob. Certainly I was finding him harder and harder to take as years went by. And part of me feels as though, if they’re really going to make things far, they should send us out on a high note for the next couple of years. Put Stephanie up in the booth with some young, handsome guy and have Bob as an on-the-street reporter. So much the better if it rains.

Make it a happy New Year for me and mine; consider supporting my Patreon!