Kristina Wrenn
Queen of the 2025 Texas Rose Festival, Avery Craft Armstrong is warm, well-spoken, and genuine. In her role as Queen, she is quick to point out that this isn’t about her but about representing Tyler and all that the Texas Rose Festival entails, from the legions of volunteers and other participants, to exposing new people to Tyler and the festival, to the positive economic impact on our community.
It is not surprising, given that her family is grounded in much the same way. The daughter of Kelli and Blake Armstrong and granddaughter of Marta and Steve Fitzpatrick, Avery was the first of six grandchildren who all live in Tyler and come as a package deal, including aunts and uncles. Grandmother Carol Armstrong joins in, having moved to Tyler from Athens after the loss of her husband, Hugh. It is lovely to see how close the whole family is and to see their dedication to Tyler organizations and philanthropy.
Their closeness gives the adage “together we are stronger” new meaning, as it is also what drives the individual and numerous successes within the family. The Fitzpatricks, Armstrongs, and the Wrights are all athletic and competitive; football, baseball (some of it professional), volleyball, soccer, you name it—someone has played it.
Avery attends the University of Kansas and competed in the Big Twelve Conference running the 400 hurdles and the 600 indoor in her Freshman and Sophomore seasons. In preparation for competing in D1 sports (the highest and most competitive level of intercollegiate athletics), she commuted from Tyler to Frisco to run club track, with the support of multiple family members, as her participation began before she could drive. In addition to representing her team on the track, she was one of the athletes who represented the program in KU LEADS, a Student Athlete Advisory Council for the Kansas athletic department.
She gives the same dedication to her studies. Avery is majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology, which integrates biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, genetics, biochemistry, and physiology to understand the structure, function, and behavior of cells and their components at a molecular level. She chose her course of study, knowing her strengths and interests lie in the sciences.
Avery has enjoyed sharing the Rose Festival experience with her friends and Delta Gamma sorority sisters. She was able to host friends around Rose Sunday and give them a tour of the Rose Museum.
Following her studies at Kansas, Avery hopes to attend medical school. She will be shadowing a couple of Tyler physicians before she returns to school in the fall. It would be perfect synergy if Avery were able to attend the University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine, as it was begun with the idea to educate locals at home, insulating East Texas from forecasted physician shortages, and was skillfully designed by her grandfather, Steve Fitzpatrick. Another example of Avery’s family being better together.
And also, better for Tyler in the extensive work that Fitzpatrick architects have contributed to Tyler ISD facilities, the redesign of Downtown and the Smith County Courthouse, and the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center, just to name a few. In fact, Avery’s grandfather took a keen interest in the design and construction of her gown and train, with its similarities to architecture. To date, he may be the only grandfather to have attended dress fittings.
Avery’s eyes light up when she speaks about her dress and the visits to the workroom. She has such respect for the hours of handwork that have gone into sewing sequin after sequin on her dress and train. Her dress reflects her personality in that it is sleek and modern. It is somewhat reminiscent of Gothic Architecture in a tone-on-tone color frame accented with a crown of different plating. Serving as an attendant to Queen Haley McGrede Anderson in 2012, Avery describes her gown as the grown-up version of her second-grade dress.
Since 2002, her mother, Kelli, has served on Cast and Kick-off Party committees, as the 2010 Rose Show Chair, six years as one of the backstage “Girls in Black”, and multiple years in Coronation Wardrobe and Properties before serving as Co-chair in 2022. Avery’s father, Blake, and her grandfather, Steve, are members of the Order of the Rose.
Queen Avery’s family members who have participated in the Texas Rose Festival include her mother, Kelli Fitzpatrick Armstrong 1998 Lady-in-Waiting; aunt, Jayme Fitzpatrick 2000 Lady-in-Waiting; aunt, Maggie Fitzpatrick Wright 2003 Lady-in-Waiting; cousin, Matthew Phelps 2003 escort to the Duchess of the Rose Growers; and cousin, Neill Phelps 2005 escort.
Avery has a humbleness that makes her an accessible leader and someone Tyler can be proud to have reigning over the 92nd Texas Rose Festival. She has been unable to complete her annual art project with her grandfather this summer, but they have collaborated with Jacob Climer and his team on an art project like no other, which we will all get to enjoy when it is unveiled at the Coronation.
After all, it is a family affair, and Avery’s brothers Pierce and Alec will be with her even if they have to miss a game. The scrapbook that Avery has already designed in her mind to commemorate this experience has to have all her family in it; it’s a package deal.