Thursday, December 29, 2016

Despite Snowstorm, Haywood Tobacco Festival Draws Thousands, 1949

From the December 1949 issue of Extension Farm-News

Haywood Festival Attracts Thousands
Everyone but the weatherman cooperated in making Haywood County’s third annual Tobacco Harvest Festival one of the biggest and most successful farm events ever staged in Western North Carolina.

Spectators had to brave chilling winds and a full-scale snowstorm to see the festival parade, but they came in droves and stayed until the very end. The colorful event drew an estimated 12,000 persons, as large a crowd as the one that lined the streets to greet the late President Roosevelt.

More than 3,000 jammed every nook and corner at the Waynesville Armory on the final night to witness a demonstration by five expert square dance teams and to see Mrs. Jennie Mae Early of Thickety community crowned queen.


The festival, held Nov. 22-26 under sponsorship of the Merchants Association, offered a program of information, inspiration, and recreation which attracted the attention of the entire Western part of the State. Among the speakers were Congressman Monroe Redden; U.S. Senators Clyde R. Hoey and Frank P. Graham; Judge Camille Kelley of Memphis; Dr. E.L. Butz of Purdue University; and Mrs. Perry Taylor vice-president of the Federated Women of North Carolina.

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