NC Azalea Festival announces its 77th Azalea Queen

The North Carolina Azalea Festival has named its 77th queen.

Sharon Lawrence, a longtime actress of TV, film and stage, was announced Friday as this year's queen in a news release from the Azalea Festival.

Lawrence, a North Carolina native and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is currently starring in the Paramount+ series "Joe Pickett" based on the best seller of the same name.

She has ties to Wilmington from her time on the locally shot drama "One Tree Hill," in which she appeared in six episodes as Sylvia Baker in 2010 and 2011. She also appeared in Wilmington-shot TV movie "The Face on the Milk Carton" in 1995.

Lawrence recently starred opposite Kirsten Dunst in the Showtime series "On Becoming a God in Central Florida" and was an elusive librarian in "Home Before Dark" for Apple+. She has held recurring roles in shows such as "Rebel," "Criminal Minds," "Shameless," "The Ranch," "Queen Sugar" and "NYPD Blue."

The 77th Azalea Festival will be held April 3-7 in and around Wilmington and New Hanover County, and features concerts, a parade, a street fair, fireworks, home and garden tours, and more.

The queen's duties include riding in the Azalea Festival parade, attending most festival functions and making other festival-related appearances.

The queen's coronation, which is free to attend, is 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, at the Battleship North Carolina.

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The festival also announced its slate of invited guests, sometimes called festival celebrities, on Friday. They are:

Elle Graham, a teenaged Wilmington actress who has had prominent roles in such movies as "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret" and on such TV shows as the Disney Channel's "The Secrets of Sulphur Springs"; Miss North Carolina Taylor Loyd; two-time national figure skating champion Gracie Gold, who won a bronze medal for the U.S. at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia; retired four-star Admiral Karl J. Schultz; "Got it From My Momma" podcast host Jennifer Vickery Smith; and official Azalea Festival artist Sharon Jones.

Previously announced was 2024 N.C. Azalea Festival Princess Minh Vu of New Hanover High School, who won the 76th annual N.C. Azalea Festival Scholarship Pageant March 9 at UNCW's Kenan Auditorium. The princess and her court — Callie Cromarti of Hoggard High School, Mary Katherine O'Malley and Kiley Canter of Laney High School, Emmy Russ of Brunswick County Early College High School — will participate in various festival events, including the parade.

The Azalea Queen's court is Abby Britt (Miss Garner), Ashley Leonard (Miss Randolph County), Jaime Logan (Miss Iredell County), Calli McIntyre (Miss Moore County), Sarah Beth Howard (Miss Sandhills), Taylor Foley (Miss Thomasville), Keelie Jones (Miss Central North Carolina) and Hannah Harvey (MissMetrolina).