GILMER, Texas (KLTV) – She\u2019s the face of Gilmer and one of Texas\u2019 longest-running festivals: the East Texas Yamboree Queen.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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\u2019ve stayed the same,\u201d Abby Stewart, 60th Yamboree Queen and 86th Yamboree President said.<\/p>\n
In Gilmer, Texas, wearing the crown means carrying a legacy going on ninety years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is home, and there\u2019s nothing like trying to explain a Yam Queen and celebrating sweet potatoes to people that have never heard of the Yamboree,\u201d Lockie Thomas, who traveled two hours back to her hometown for the annual Yamboree, said.<\/p>\n
The East Texas Yamboree Queen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to maintain this tradition for so long, and at this point I just think it\u2019s so cool because there\u2019s so many girl\u2019s whose moms have run for queen or been queen, and grandmothers…just like a living, breathing piece of history and it keeps growing,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
For this year\u2019s Yamboree Queen, Danica Jo Vestal, she\u2019s happy to join that sisterhood and start her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just very rewarding because I\u2019m 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,\u201d Vestal said.<\/p>\n
And as the 89th Yamboree Queen, Vestal is making a statement with the iconic queen\u2019s dress.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dress is also blue, which isn\u2019t very traditional. Most queens do white or gold or something, but I wanted to stick with blue and silver,\u201d Vestal said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the very first non-white queen\u2019s dress, it was Phebe Philips in 1976,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople think that the Yamboree holds onto the money — no. It really is going back into the community,\u201d 89th Yamboree President Janice Gage said.<\/p>\n
All of the donations raised go directly to funding the upcoming Yamboree.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout that, we would have no Yamboree. It really is the heart and soul of what the Yamboree is all about,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
And this year, a record-breaking nearly $945,000 was brought in.<\/p>\n
Gage is the mother of last year\u2019s queen, Mia Gage, and now as president she said she has a dual perspective into the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of girls really wanted to be queen, and so that\u2019s how that happened. It was double of anything we\u2019ve ever brought in,\u201d Gage said.<\/p>\n
And by bringing that money in, those seven girls vying for Yamboree Queen also bring an entire community back together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a big homecoming. I have friends from out of town that don\u2019t come home from Christmas but come home for the Yamboree,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll tell ya right now, it\u2019s small town, but it\u2019s better than the State Fair of Texas. Sorry to Big Tex, but we love our Yam Queen,\u2019 Thomas said.<\/p>\n
The first-ever Yamboree Queen was a Union Grove senior, and this year\u2019s queen, Danica Vestal, is also a Union Grove senior.<\/p>\n
The Yamboree Queen candidates are chosen in March, and the next race for the 90th queen will begin in June.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KLTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GILMER, Texas (KLTV) – She\u2019s the face of Gilmer and one of Texas\u2019 longest-running festivals: the East Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[138668,138669,138671,138667,24422,9,24,63,122,124,123,138670],"class_list":["post-376959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-abby-stewart","tag-danica-jo-vestal","tag-east-texas-festival","tag-east-texas-yamboree-queen","tag-gilmer","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-union-grove"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}