DENVER DEBUTANTE BALL 

Denver 

News: One of the Old Guard’s most cherished traditions, the annual Denver Debutante Ball, celebrated its 69^th year on Dec. 22 when 31 debutantes were presented at the historic Brown Palace Hotel. 

The daughters, granddaughters, aunts and nieces from prominent families whose last names include Coors, Benson, Frampton, Garnsey, Van Schaack and Watts descended the hotel’s grand staircase to curtsy under the heirloom crystal chandelier that is erected in the hotel rotunda to a receiving line made up of: 

• Ball chair Shannon Furgason and her husband, Brian. Shannon has been associated with the Denver Debutante Ball for 27 years, starting with her presentation in 1989. Her daughter, Paige Furgason, a freshman at the University of Kansas, was among the 2025 debutantes and represented the sixth debutante in the Sullivan/Furgason family to be so honored. 

• Chairwoman-elect Brooke Maloy, and her husband, Charles Edward Maloy IV. Maloy is a 20-year member of the Denver Debutante Ball committee and was presented in 1990. Her mother, Pam Bansbach, chaired the ball in 1990 and 1991 and chaired the 2025 advisory committee. Brooke Maloy is vice president of Front Range Land and Development, whose projects include the development of Belleview Station in south Denver. 

• Johanna Elizabeth Kelly, director of development at Denver Botanic Garden, and Tom Coxhead, who had been one of her escorts when she was presented at the 1977 Denver Debutante Ball. The debutante tradition in Kelly’s family began when her maternal grandmother, Elaine Daniels Wilcox, was presented to King George VI at Buckingham Palace in 1925. Kelly’s sister, Maureen, was presented in 1974.  

• The 25 ball’s honorary chairwoman, Barbara Knight, grandmother of 2025 post-debutante Hazel Knight, the ball’s longstanding historian who chaired the event in 1982 and 1983, and her son, Roger Davis Knight IV. Knight’s daughter, Heather, was presented at the 1983 Denver Debutante Ball. 

• Nancy Trigg Seavall, a 1985 debutante whose daughter, Ashley, was presented this year, and her father, John R. Trigg. Seavall’s daughter, Nicole, was a co-chair of the 2025 junior patron committee, along with Rachel Hanley and Laura Fox. 

The debutante class of 2025 was made up of: 

Helen Grace Austin, Marin Lee Calkins, Mayhew Holland Coors, Margaret Elizabeth Coors, Georgia Maile Dollarhide, Margaret Elise Frampton, Paige Elizabeth Furgason, Lola Lucille Garnsey, Sophia Ellen Grauer, Katherine Anne Grinney, Lucy Roh Hall, Elizabeth Hadaway Haynes, Kate Elizabeth Hughes, Heather Virginia Jacoby, Margaret Whitney Lawrence and Avery Rose Lent. 

Also, Margaux Elizabeth Lively, Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie, Lillian Grace Moldenhauer, Ellie Hudson Perkins, Laura Jean Reidy, Amelia Rose Roberts, Ashley Rose Seavall, Addison Mae Smith, Sora Quinn Sohn, Sophia June Stern, Sloane Sophia Thompson, Sawyer Emery Vinton, O’Neill Emma Watts, Addison Jean Westerberg, Katherine Kaia Wrench and Sophie Ann Zotti. 

Margaret (Maggie) Coors and Mayhew (Maisy) Coors are part of the Coors Beer family; Laura Reidy is the granddaughter of former University of Colorado president Bruce Benson and Nancy Lake Benson; Margaret (Maggie) Frampton’s father, Christopher, is the managing partner of East West Partners and a founding member of the Civic Center Conservancy; her grandfather, Harry Frampton, is managing partner of East West Partners in Vail and a 2008 inductee to the Colorado Business Hall of Fame. 

Marin Calkins’s father is former Indy Racing League driver Bradley “Buzz” Calkins; Katherine (Kate) Wrench’s maternal grandmother is Clara Van Schaack Combs Moore of Carbondale, whose family members were leaders in aviation and real estate. Debutante Elizabeth Haynes wore gloves that had belonged to family friend and 1987 deb Melinda Smith Haymons. 

And, master of ceremonies Glenn Rippey followed in the footsteps of his father, the late Gordon Rippey, who was master of ceremonies from 1993 to 2007 and died earlier this year. Gordon Rippey’s ties to the Denver Debutante Ball dates to its founding, when he was the escort for the woman he would later marry, the former Sally Winters. Glenn’s daughter, former debutante Lane Rippey, served on the 2025 Junior Patron Committee. 

“Family connections,” opined Betty Lynn Jackson, the chairwoman in 1998 and 1999, “are what make this ball so special.” 

About the organization: Since its inception in 1956, the nonprofit Denver Debutante Ball has served as both a fundraising organization and a means of celebrating the accomplishments of over 1,000 young ladies whose families have deep ties to Colorado’s early-day settlers and have made lasting contributions in fields ranging from commerce and industry to the arts, civic leadership and philanthropy. Each debutante is in her freshman year of college; this year in schools and institutions that include the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Columbia University, Wake Forest University, Columbia University, the University of Denver and Boston College. From 1956 to 2011, the ball raised some $4 million for what was then the Denver Symphony and its successor, the Colorado Symphony. Starting in 2012, the ball became a fundraiser for Denver Botanic Gardens. In addition, each year’s debutante class selects a nonprofit to support. This year it was Roundup River Ranch. Also, the debutantes participated in a day of service at the Denver Botanic Gardens campus at Chatfield Farms. 

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