Group inducts latest into 2025 Music and Blossom Festival Hall of Fame – Canon City Daily Record

Two individuals and one entire family were inducted into the 2025 Music and Blossom Festival Hall of Fame during the third annual Blossom Ball on Saturday at Marchand Ranch.

Lettie DiRito was the 1957 Cañon City Music & Blossom Festival Queen. After marrying and while raising children, the entire DiRito family has been involved in the community’s most cherished and longstanding event in one way or another.

Her late husband, Bobby DiRito, along with Mike Fry and a few others, jumped in to save the festival when it was in danger of being cancelled in the early 2000s and got it back on its feet again. Since then, the couple’s son, Greg DiRito, has served on the Blossom Festival Committee, organizing Cluster Duck and the carnival, and opening his doors at DiRito’s Italian Restaurant for Blossom Festival meetings, a place for people to change clothes for the parade and more.

“When I was a little girl watching the parade, I said, ‘I’ve got to be in that band one of these days,’ and I was,” Lettie DiRito said. “I was in the band and my kids marched in the parade either with Anita McCoy (Dance Studio) or with the bands over the years.”

DiRito was honored as the 2015 Parade Grand Marshal, and she’s ridden in the parade with other past Blossom queens in special milestone years, including the 25th, 50th and 75th anniversaries.

“It’s nice to be remembered and called back even for just the parade, that was important to me,” she said. “Cañon City and Fremont County have always been my home.”

Being inducted into the Hall of Fame, DiRito said, is a great honor, and she feels her recognition isn’t just for her but for all 80 current and past queens.

“Not only that, but I think all of the volunteers and participants deserve appreciation because without them, there would be no Blossom Festival,” she said. “They say it takes a village to raise a child, I say it takes a community to have a Blossom Festival.”

Cañon City’s Music and Blossom Festival week is coming, filled with plenty of events

The McCarter family – Dan and Lisa, and their grown children, Ethan McCarter and Alexis Weaver – were honored collectively Saturday for their work and dedication to the Blossom Festival over the years.

Their involvement in the Blossom Festival spans three generations.

Ethan McCarter joined the Blossom Festival Board of Directors in 2011, soon serving as vice president, overseeing event logistics and equipment and even producing the Blossom floats for the annual Parade of Lights. He created the Blossom Hall of Fame Dinner in 2014 as a way to honor those many volunteers and participants who came before him. The event in 2023 became the Blossom Ball, still honoring those selfless individuals, but also raising funds for the festival.

“It’s a way to give back and say thanks to everybody,” he said. “The committee doesn’t happen without the volunteers. Period. The fact that it has carried on is special for the community as a whole.”

And with no volunteers, there’s no event, Lisa McCarter said.

“We are a family where if one is involved, we’re all involved,” she said. “A family that plays together stays together, that’s our family.”

Dan and Lisa McCarter spent 20 years coordinating many successful craft fairs held during Blossom Weekend and even served on the board of directors. They have spent more than 500 hours invested in a craft fair before Blossom Weekend even begins. They also helped coordinate the inaugural Blossom Hall of Fame event in 2014. Alexis Weaver competed in numerous Blossom events through the years and then began volunteering for the festival, also helping with the recognition dinner.

When Dan McCarter was a youngster, his dad, Don McCarter, owned a music store, Mac’s Music Mart, which supplied band instruments and other equipment to the field shows at the high school and visiting bands.

“When I was four and five years old, I remember walking down to 10th and Main, sitting on the curb, and watching the bands go by,” he said. “That’s where I first started having the desire to play the drums.”

Members of the McCarter family had varying reactions upon learning they were going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

“I felt very unworthy,” Lisa McCarter said. “There are so many other people who contribute to it so much more.”

Dan McCarter said he felt honored.

“Growing up in Cañon City and marching in the band when I was in grade school, middle school and high school, all the way through and then being a professional musician with my older brother, being involved musically over the years, it’s really kind of special,” he said.

Brendan Pardue contributes his time, talent and finances to several local groups and organizations across Fremont County. His contribution to the Music and Blossom Festival Queen’s Pageant, however, is targeted to benefit a single young lady each year.

Pardue aims to sponsor a delegate who does not have a well-known family name or who may even be in foster care.

“I really spoil them bad,” he said. He gives them “whatever they and their parents want – dresses or whatever. I try to make sure they get whatever they want, and I tell the parents to make sure they ask for whatever they need.”

Pardue also financially contributes to the pageant overall and offers his home, the historic Gibson Mansion, for photo shoots.

The goal behind his giving is to help pageant contestants build character.

“I think that it’s really important that they learn how to carry themselves, how to speak and how to have manners,” he said. “That is so important in life – how you present yourself, social skills and how you carry yourself and the way you present yourself with dignity.”

He was surprised when he learned about being named an inductee.

“I was quite shocked, actually,” he said.

This year’s festival kicks off Wednesday with concert bands, orchestra, concert choir and jazz band performances and competitions at various locations. To learn more about this year’s events, visit

Hall of Fame Inductees

2014 — Don Packard, Mickey Gann, Beverly Gann, William Stokes, Hank Holloway, Claudia Stevens, Tom Ledbetter, Dan Dennision, Earl Dryden, and Fred Whitney.

2015 — Lois Olson, John and Suzie McMillan, Karl Leason and Mary Jo and Dwayne Miller.

2016 — Dennis Sullivan, Joe Brice, Wayne Manzanares and Ken Overbo.

2017 — Dave Brookins, Debi Moore, and Judi Paxton.

2018 — The Ring family of Wright’s Amusement Company and Mark Emery.

2019 — Tim and Diane Andrews, Cañon City School District and Florence-Penrose School District.

2020 and 2021 – COVID cancellations

2022—  Chris Brady, Carie Canterbury and Bruce Harris

2023 – Drew Bankston, Mike Fry and Jennifer Jordan

2024 – John Howard family and Sarah Ley

2025 – Lettie DiRito, Brendan Pardue, and Dan, Lisa and Ethan McCarter and Alexis Weaver.

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