GILMER, Texas (KLTV) – She’s the face of Gilmer and one of Texas’ longest-running festivals: the East Texas Yamboree Queen.
Through fundraising and hard work, the tradition of having a queen is what keeps this legacy sweeter than sweet potatoes going for nearly a century.
“It is so much fun to walk down this hall and look at the evolution of queens though and how much things have changed over the years but also how they’ve stayed the same,” Abby Stewart, 60th Yamboree Queen and 86th Yamboree President said.
In Gilmer, Texas, wearing the crown means carrying a legacy going on ninety years.
“This is home, and there’s nothing like trying to explain a Yam Queen and celebrating sweet potatoes to people that have never heard of the Yamboree,” Lockie Thomas, who traveled two hours back to her hometown for the annual Yamboree, said.
The East Texas Yamboree Queen.
“We’ve been able to maintain this tradition for so long, and at this point I just think it’s so cool because there’s so many girl’s whose moms have run for queen or been queen, and grandmothers…just like a living, breathing piece of history and it keeps growing,” Stewart said.
For this year’s Yamboree Queen, Danica Jo Vestal, she’s happy to join that sisterhood and start her own.
“It’s just very rewarding because I’m the first Vestal in the family to become the queen and I just really hope to carry it on one day. And that everyone in my family that has little girls or something would also love to do this and we could have a long-standing history of it,” Vestal said.
And as the 89th Yamboree Queen, Vestal is making a statement with the iconic queen’s dress.
“My dress is also blue, which isn’t very traditional. Most queens do white or gold or something, but I wanted to stick with blue and silver,” Vestal said.
Queens in the past have shaken things up with the type of train they use, materials ranging from diamonds to glass. The first big change happened exactly 50 years ago.
“This was the very first non-white queen’s dress, it was Phebe Philips in 1976,” Stewart said.
Yamboree Queen candidates are chosen by local service clubs, and a two-week fundraiser race in June leads to the winner, based on who brings in the most money.
“People think that the Yamboree holds onto the money — no. It really is going back into the community,” 89th Yamboree President Janice Gage said.
All of the donations raised go directly to funding the upcoming Yamboree.
“Without that, we would have no Yamboree. It really is the heart and soul of what the Yamboree is all about,” Stewart said.
And this year, a record-breaking nearly $945,000 was brought in.
Gage is the mother of last year’s queen, Mia Gage, and now as president she said she has a dual perspective into the role.
“A lot of girls really wanted to be queen, and so that’s how that happened. It was double of anything we’ve ever brought in,” Gage said.
And by bringing that money in, those seven girls vying for Yamboree Queen also bring an entire community back together.
“It’s like a big homecoming. I have friends from out of town that don’t come home from Christmas but come home for the Yamboree,” Stewart said.
“I’ll tell ya right now, it’s small town, but it’s better than the State Fair of Texas. Sorry to Big Tex, but we love our Yam Queen,’ Thomas said.
The first-ever Yamboree Queen was a Union Grove senior, and this year’s queen, Danica Vestal, is also a Union Grove senior.
The Yamboree Queen candidates are chosen in March, and the next race for the 90th queen will begin in June.
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