Queen Elizabeth II captured Texas hearts in 1991 trip to Austin, Dallas, San Antonio

This story originally published on May 21, 1991, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Who says the British are stuffy?

Within an hour of landing on Texas soil for the first time, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II yesterday found her way into Texans’ proud hearts.

“No state commands such fierce pride and loyalty,” she told a crowd of about 5,000 who gathered on the state Capitol grounds, waving Union Jacks on a partly cloudy day. “Lesser mortals are pitied for their misfortune in not being born Texans.”

[MORE: See photos of Queen Elizabeth’s trip to Dallas]

The queen’s husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, also charmed his Texas guests, impressing officials on a tour of the Sematech computer center in Austin.

“If you are surprised that I knew something about it, the only claim to fame that I have is that I’m the most experienced visitor to technical facilities,” the good-humored prince said. “I’ve been doing it professionally for the last, roughly, 40 years.

“I can claim to have patted the first microchip on the head.”

The royal couple will travel to San Antonio and Dallas today on their second of three days in the Lone Star State.

Texas lived up to its bigger, better image for the royal couple.

The crowds that greeted them at the Capitol were bigger than any so far in their nine-day U.S. tour, according to royal staff members. They also received a 21-gun salute so loud that it drove pigeons from the rafters of the granite Capitol.

“The guns in the 21-gun salute . . . had a louder boom than that heard elsewhere, so there was a particular Texan quality to that part of the welcome,” said a Buckingham Palace spokesman.

House Speaker Gib Lewis gave the queen six pairs of Justin Ropers, courtesy of the Fort Worth boot-maker, to take home to her six grandchildren.

“I’d hate for you to come to this country and not bring back boots for them to wear,” said Lewis, D-Fort Worth.

And right before a rendition of God Save the Queen, the University of Texas Longhorn band played The Eyes of Texas.

It was a day of gifts to the royal couple, who received everything from jalapeno jelly to glass sculptures in the shape of stars.

Presented with a commemorative T-shirt and a silicon wafer at Sematech, the prince said: “These are two of the things I’ve been longing for.”

Earlier in the day, the queen stopped in Tampa, Fla., to bestow an honorary knighthood upon the United States’ closest thing to royalty: superstar Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the Allied forces in the war against Iraq.

Arriving in Texas by Concorde, Queen Elizabeth briefly spoke to a joint session of the Legislature and attended a reception with state officials and political supporters at the Governor’s Mansion. She attended another reception with Texas reporters and a dinner at the LBJ Library with Lady Bird Johnson, H. Ross Perot, state officials and others.

Many of the British media opted for a night at an Austin honky-tonk, the Broken Spoke.

Texas is the 12th U.S. state the queen has visited. Official palace spokesmen said she wanted to tour Texas because of its international importance and because of the ties that bind Texas to Great Britain. The queen and Prince Philip were received warmly; only one large Irish flag waved in the breeze.

In her longest public remarks of the day, Queen Elizabeth spoke on the Capitol steps of her nation’s long ties with Texas.

“One hundred and fifty years ago the British consul in Texas reported to our foreign office that “Texans are rough and wild, but their consistency and courage are admirable,’ “ the queen said. “I have only just arrived here but I know well that Texas has had an exceptionally colorful history. Quite a number of the principal characters in it had their origin in the old country.

“Some of the heroes of the Alamo were migrants from Britain, as were many of the people who settled your land.”

Gov. Ann Richards, who required cold medication so that she could speak, also told of shared bonds. Great Britain was one of the first European nations to recognize the fledgling Republic of Texas 151 years ago.

“Texans have shared many concerns with Great Britain and fought alongside her valiant troops from World War I through the recent conflict in the Middle East,” Richards said.

The microphones were low enough that the diminutive monarch was not hidden, as she was on her arrival in Washington last week. The queen’s hat of the day was a yellow braided crown that had no top.

Richards wore no hat; she also wore no gloves. And when the queen turned to the outdoor crowd and offered her delicate, queenly wave, Richards delivered a more robust, Texas howdy kind of salute.

Richards’ granddaughter Lily Adams, 4, had one of the choicest jobs, presenting the queen with her favorite peonies in the Capitol rotunda.

Asked what the queen told her on this most memorable day, Lily said: “I can’t remember.”