Who's Who

The ORS is a 100% volunteer-based organization led by a group of people that are responsible for event coordination and fund raising as necessary.  Although all members are often involved in events, the main leadership group is represented by a select group of women known as the ORS Leaders.  Here are the current ORS leaders in order of join-date:

Mrs Stephanie Johanesen

(aka le Duchesse de Beaufort)

Founder of the ORS and the RSA

Personal website

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” ― Albert Einstein

Stephanie was raised in Belgium. She speaks several languages.  She is married and has a young son.  She started the Oregon Regency Society on a lark, with a desire to find like-minded people who loved the period like she did. She was astounded by the response, and has since 2007, been making sure there are lots of opportunities to play dress-up for the many ORS members. She is an equestrian, an artist and an author, among many other things.

Miss Heather Ferguson
(aka the Countess Ferguson)

Member of the ORS since 2008

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” ~Rudyard Kipling

Lady Heather Ferguson lives in the past most of the time. When she is not dressed in the costume of various time periods, she is teaching Pacific NW history as an outreach educator for a local museum. Lady Heather has undergraduate degrees in Merchandising Management from Bassist College, Portland, OR and Business Administration Management from Carroll College, Helena, MT. Her Master’s degree is in Museum Studies from the University of Oklahoma, Norman. The ORS has given Lady Heather the opportunity to meet many fantastic people, wear pretty costumes and learn more about the Regency Period.

Mrs Charlotte Cunningham

Member of the ORS since 2009

Personal website

“I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. ” ― Martha Washington

Charlotte has happily called Oregon her home since 1999. Her husband and son share space with her various books, fabric, yarn and painting supplies, but they don’t seem to mind too much; even when she adds some new skill (and accompanying accouterments) to the mix. She joined the ORS with the desire to befriend like-minded people, and found them aplenty.  She makes valiant attempts at blogging, at least semi-occasionally, has a strange obsession for editing novels, and a not so strange obsession for collecting folding fans and shawls.

Mrs Nora Azevedo
(aka the Countess of Jersey)

Member of the ORS since 2010

Personal website

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.   -Leonardo Da Vinci

Nora Azevedo is a Pacific Northwest girl through and through who always had a love of history. She is married to a musician and has a precocious cat named after the oldest Bennett sister. Inspired by an OPB interview with Mrs. Johanesen she decided to make a gown and attend an event. She has been hooked ever since. From bonnets to gowns, dancing to picnics, tea to a tipple of port, Mrs. Azevedo has been known to enjoy them all, thus earning her the title "Countess of Jersey"

Mrs Kat D'Silva (not pictured)

Member of the ORS since 2010

Miss Morgan Shanafelt

Member of the ORS since 2010

Personal website

"Mad, bad and dangerous to know"-lord Byron 

Morgan, a Portland native and SCCC apparel design graduate has always adored historical costume. This love inspired her to design for various theaters throughout the Pacific Northwest as well as commercials and music videos. By day she does hair design at a local salon, by night, she is a mother, an artist, a dreamer, and idealist and a free-thinker. Always enjoying an excuse to marry all of her talents, Morgan loves to plan dress up parties and set the stage for decadence and merriment.

Mrs Mary Crawford (not pictured)

(also known as Aelfgyve LaFae)

Member of the ORS since 2011

Miss Lily Parker

ORS Junior Leader

Member of the ORS since 2013

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -- Jane Austen

Lovely Miss Lily is 12 years old. Lily was born in Washington and moved to Oregon in 2012. She heard about the ORS when she met Nora at a restaurant with her mother. She was immediately drawn into the world of Regency. Lily became involved in the leadership meetings when she accompanied Nora, and was pleased to be inducted as an ORS Junior Leader by the group. She is very happy to be an integral part of the group. Miss Lily is thought to be the most photogenic of the leadership group--and finds herself often the object of adoration and 'squees' as she calls them whenever she is trussed up in her Regency finest.  Lily feels happy that this reenactment group welcomed her so much and made her feel like family. 

Photography by Julie Verdini

Effects by Mt. Hood Creations