‘Abbott Elementary’ Star Sheryl Lee Ralph Reveals Interesting Family Connection to Queen Elizabeth II: ‘That Really Happened’
usmagazine.comA royal connection. Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph revealed an interesting link to the late Queen Elizabeth II from her past.“My auntie Carolyn [Preston] … went to college to get out of the house and she became a teacher and ended up becoming a principal at a [National Blue Ribbon School] that [once] invited the queen,” Ralph, 65, shared exclusively with Us Weekly ahead of Abbott Elementary’s season 2 premiere on Wednesday, September 21.The actress, who noted that her college professor father, Stanley Ralph, also helped inspire her character Barbara Howard on the school-focused comedy series, detailed the occasion further. “The queen actually came and sipped tea with her class and the students – yeah, that really happened! [At] Bunker Hill Elementary School in Washington, D.C.,” she explained.The Connecticut native — whose recent Emmy win (and subsequent speech) for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series made waves through the zeitgeist — seems to be talking about the late monarch’s visit to the United States in May 1991.Per Fox 5 DC, the queen was welcomed to the White House at the time by then-President George H.W.
Bush. Then-First Lady, Barbara Bush, also hosted Elizabeth and the late Prince Phillip for a state dinner.In addition to Ralph’s interesting anecdote about the London native’s stop at Bunker Hill Elementary, the queen also made a noteworthy visit to the Marshall Heights neighborhood in Southeast D.C.
to see the unveiling of Queens Stroll Place housing development. There she was warmly welcomed by resident Alice Frazier, whose generous embrace of the monarch was considered to be against protocol — but Elizabeth hugged her back.“I’m used to hugging people,” Frazier told the Washington Post
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