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You won't find Jeanette Dahlquist staking out her usual spot along Bench Street for the Taylors Falls Lighting Festival Parade route this Friday evening. Instead, she'll be in the parade, as Taylors Falls' 2008 Royal Lady of the Village.

Dahlquist was selected to hold the honorary title granted annually to the woman who goes above and beyond promoting Taylors Falls attributes, and who helps improve life in the Taylors Falls community.

A Royal Lady has been honored annually with the red velvet cape and front spot in the Lighting Festival Parade, since 1989.

"I haven't missed very many-- if any-- of the parades," she said during an interview. And, Dahlquist has enjoyed many town functions, having lived in town since 1977.

Growing up on the family farm in Franconia Township, the youngest of three children of Julia and Jean Johnson, the 2008 Royal Lady describes herself as not a big talker as a kid, and wasn't what you'd call out-going. Somewhere along the way, though, Jeanette broke out of her shell. She became involved in all sorts of church and civic activities and school functions, and today she's recognized as the unofficial Taylors Falls font of information. Most days she can be found in Chisago House enjoying a small town tradition, morning coffee. Anybody who enjoys conversation and local lore has probably met Jeanette.

Among her many activities; she volunteered at Taylors Falls School for over 30 years. Dahlquist said with three children, she just kept on as each generation of Scouts, PTA and school functions came along.

She's been an election judge, been active with the historical society, sat on the town library board and was a fixture at the Folsom House, a tourist destination on Angel Hill, for 20 years.

Valley Graphics owner Linda Sandman, who is helping organize the Lighting Festival, gushed about Dahlquist's ability to remain "on the go." Dahlquist joked that all it takes is somebody wandering into the Chisago House restaurant, asking aloud about some topic like the park pothole formations, and the conversation's started.

Dahlquist travels extensively and she has stories how she's been elsewhere in the United States or in a foreign country and Taylors Falls will come up. She was in Sweden and met people who'd just returned from Taylors Falls. She was talking to a total stranger whose aunt he said was a member of the congregation at the landmark church in Center City. Dahlquist said he asked her if she knew Bea Nelson.

Of course she did, she'd attended Chisago Lake Lutheran for decades.

Dahlquist's dad, Jean Johnson, drove the Taylors Falls School District bus known as the "cheese box." Old timers still chuckle over the quirky pieced-together vehicle that resembled a golden cheddar cheese container. Her dad died when Jeanette was a senior at Taylors Falls (which was a k-12 grade school then.)

Jeanette and her husband Melvin Dahlquist, Taylors Falls, lived with her widowed mom on the farm for quite a while. The boys-- Randy, Ron and Richard, were raised there. The couple bought a house in Taylors Falls just about the time the youngest son was graduating. Melvin passed away in 1993.

Dahlquist can't picture living anywhere else, she stated. There is such a wealth of things to do and see plus, "I meet the most interesting people."

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