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History of the Peach Festival - Ruston, LA
There existed a time when parish crops did not include the firm, fresh peaches,
and the rolling Lincoln hillsides could not boast the lush springtime cover of pale pink blossoms. Few peaches were grown for commercial purposes until the 1940s. Prior to that time, most peach farming was done on a small-scale family basis consisting of a few acres. By the late 1930s, several commercial peach orchards were located in Lincoln Parish.
In 1947, the area peach growers organized the Louisiana Fruit Growers Association. And in 1951, they voted to promote their industry by spreading word of the unexcelled taste of Lincoln Parish peaches throughout Louisiana and surrounding states.
Plans to hold an annual Louisiana Peach Festival were placed on the drawing board. For months preceding June 1951, Ruston citizens busied themselves preparing for the event. J.E Mitcham, President of the Louisiana Fruit Growers Association, and Walter Smith, Chairman of the first Louisiana Peach Festival, spent many hours planning the celebration. Area merchants filled the Ruston Daily Leader with advertisements offering special sales and savings to honor the first Peach Festival. The Association, with the cooperation of the city of Ruston, Chamber of Commerce, civic clubs, garden clubs, merchants, and many other individuals, worked unceasingly decorating the main streets, public buildings, banks and stores with banners and placards headlining the popular Dixie Gem peach.
The program of the First Annual Louisiana Peach Festival, which was held on June 27-28, 1951, consisted of “Peaches and Posies” flower show, a peach cookery contest, an art show, and several athletic tournaments – climaxed with the crowning of the First Queen Dixie Gem and Pr
incess Peach.
South Louisiana humorist, Justin Wilson, Master of Ceremonies for the beauty pageant, entertained a large audience in Howard Auditorium on the Louisiana Tech University campus with the Cajun dialect, emptying “both pockets filled with humorous tales of the South Louisiana natives.” In the tension-filled final moments of the pageant, Louisiana Cajun Senator Dudly J. LeBlanc, Abbeville’s famous Hadacol salesman, presented the crown and title of Queen Dixie Gem I to Miss Ann Colvin of Bernice, Louisiana. Little Miss Lou Ellen Stevens was named the 1951 Princess Peach. During the ceremony, Senator LeBlanc handed Miss Colvin a gold miniature bottle of Hadacol, his cure-all wonder drug that had gained him national fame and great wealth.
The first Peach Festival achieved far greater success than any of the sponsors expected. Crowds of people came to attend the exciting events and to take advantage of the special sales held by local merchants. More important, however, the Lincoln Parish peach growers had started their most potent annual publicity event.
After the event became history, the following editorial concerning the Peach Festival was published in the Ruston Daily Leader:
“We believe we can consider the initial effort a success. It was an extremely hard job put over by a small group of men (and women)… but they did it and our whole
area will rise in importance. This (Ruston) will be the new festival city, the new peach market of the south, and from it we will all benefit.”
In the years following 1951, the Louisiana Peach Festival grew in size and popularity. In 1952, its activities doubled in number. In the third year, the festival won national attention when Queen Dixie Gem III, Dorothy Etta Goff, traveled to Washington, D.C. to present then Vice President Richard Nixon a box of peaches. When a late freeze destroyed the entire peach crop in 1955, the Festival Committee had peaches imported from Texas and Georgia. The theme that year was “The Show
Must Go On.”
“Flavor” is the thing that citizens of Lincoln Parish continue to boast about. The pride that the local citizens feel is demonstrated throughout the year, but becomes particularly evident during the annual Peach Festival. On June 24, 1982, the Dubach State Bank saluted the Lincoln Parish peach growers with an advertisement which read, in part:
“During the Peach Festival, we want to recognize the peach growers for the quality and success of their products; and, we want to acknowledge them for the job opportunities they offer the students of the area. Working the fields, picking, grading, and preparing peaches for shipment provides these students with the funds to continue their education and obtain their goals…”
As the Lincoln Visitors Bureau used the peach industry as a key feature item, the Chamber of Commerce pushed the peach as the symbol of community achievement. The efforts of these two agencies, along with those of the Peach Festival Association, have met with considerable success throughout the years.
Even students attending Louisiana Tech University succumb to the magnetism of the “espirit de la peche.” Tech students serve as one of the industry’s biggest promoters. When they travel with the luscious Lincoln Parish peaches as a treat for their families, invariably they convert them to the taste of the delectable fruit. Students further champion the peach by participating in the numerous activities of the Peach Festival, such as the softball tournament, the four-mile run, or the Queen Dixie Gem Pageant.
An excellent example of the promotional potential of Tech students is found in the 1982 Peach Queen, Melissa Dawn Summerlin. A fifth-generation Tech student, she was crowned Queen Dixie Gem XXXII on June 26, 1982, and in promoting the area’s peach industry, she believes that the Louisiana Peach Festival has been a primary instrument in spreading the reputation of the area’s favorite fruit. As an illustration of the widespread fame of the Lincoln Parish’s unique commodity, Miss Summerlin reported that on a recent visit to Galliano, Louisiana, to attend the Louisiana Oyster Festival, the citizens of Galliano asked many questions about Ruston peaches.
The worsening national financial recession of the early 1980s threatened the future of the Louisiana Peach festival. In May 1982, three former festival chairmen reluctantly forecast the collapse of the event, saying if additional funds were not found and certain changes were not made, the Festival days were numbered. At one time the state contributed to the Louisiana Peach Festival. But, for several years it had been financed independently, and each year directors of the Association were forced to seek additional sources of money. The Lincoln Parish Jury and many other individuals came to the aid, and the 1982 Festival, one of the most successful, was held as usual.
The uncertain conditions surrounding the 1982 Festival spurred the Ruston/Lincoln Chamber of Commerce into action. In an important meeting in January 1983, the body voted to accept joint sponsorship of the Louisiana Peach Festival with the Ruston/Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau. The financial future of the Festival appears brighter than ever.
These excerpts are from an article in the JOURNAL for the North Louisiana Historical Association, written by Cynthia L. Whiting, while she was a graduate student at Louisiana Tech University.
Prepared by:
Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau
2111 Trenton
Ruston, LA 71270
Phone (318) 255-2031
Fax (318) 255-3481