[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11151]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        LOUISIANA PEACH FARMERS

 Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, I would like to recognize all 
Louisiana peach farmers, the festival's title sponsors: Squire Creek 
Country Club, the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, the city of 
Ruston, and all the other sponsors who partnered to celebrate the 
Diamond Anniversary of the Louisiana Peach Festival the weekend of June 
25 to 27, 2010.
  In 1947, the area peach growers of Lincoln Parish organized the 
Louisiana Fruit Growers Association. In 1951, the association voted to 
promote their industry by spreading the word about the exceptional 
Lincoln Parish peaches throughout Louisiana.
  In June 1951, the president of the Louisiana Fruit Growers 
Association, J.E. Mitcham, and Walter Smith founded the Louisiana Peach 
Festival in Ruston. The association, with the cooperation of the city 
of Ruston, chamber of commerce, civic clubs, garden clubs, merchants, 
and many other individuals, worked tirelessly to prepare the city for 
the inaugural festival. Area merchants filled the Ruston Daily Leader 
with advertisements offering special sales and savings to honor the 
first Peach Festival. The program of the First Annual Louisiana Peach 
Festival, which was held on June 27 to 28, 1951, consisted of ``Peaches 
and Posies'' flower show, a peach cookery contest, an art show, and 
several athletic tournaments. The festival also crowned the First Queen 
Dixie Gem and Princess Peach.
  In the years following, the Louisiana Peach Festival grew in size and 
popularity. In 1952, the festival's activities doubled in number. By 
the third year, the festival won national attention when Queen Dixie 
Gem III, Dorothy Etta Goff, traveled to Washington, DC, to present then 
Vice President Richard Nixon a box of peaches. Over the past 60 years 
the festival has become an iconic event in the region.
  Thus, today I would like to recognize all the organizations, 
volunteers, and especially the farmers for continuing to put on the 
Louisiana Peach Festival. I would also like to thank them for their 
appetizing service to Lincoln Parish and to the State of 
Louisiana.

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