Kenyon/History/Notable people/Stephanie Edwards
born 1943 · Television host; the Rose Parade on KTLA

Stephanie Edwards

Every New Year's morning for a generation, the voice describing the floats on KTLA's Rose Parade broadcast belonged to a woman from Kenyon, Minnesota, the Boulevard of Roses.

From Kenyon to Los Angeles

Stephanie Edwards was born in 1943 and grew up in Kenyon. She went into broadcasting in Los Angeles, where she co-hosted AM Los Angeles on KABC with Ralph Story in the early 1970s, then went to New York to co-host ABC's AM America with Bill Beutel in 1975, the program that became Good Morning America, on which she was a frequent substitute for Joan Lunden. She was nominated for a 1979 Daytime Emmy as outstanding host for the syndicated show Everyday, and was the television spokeswoman for the Lucky supermarket chain from the mid-1980s until 1998.

The Rose Parade

Her signature was the Tournament of Roses Parade. From 1978 to 2005 she co-anchored KTLA Channel 5's New Year's Day broadcast with Bob Eubanks, the most-watched local coverage of the parade in the country. In 2006 the station moved her off the anchor desk to a street-level position, a decision so unpopular with viewers that the station reversed it: she rejoined Eubanks as co-anchor in 2009 and stayed until both retired after the 2016 parade. A woman from the Boulevard of Roses spent thirty-five New Year's mornings describing roses.

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