Oldest Living Peanut Queen Remembers ‘Goober Festival’

By Greg Ritchie

Messenger Reporter

GRAPELAND –  Long before it was called the Peanut Festival, long before the floats and carnival lights, it was known simply as the Goober Festival — and a 14-year-old farm girl named Anne Smith found herself standing in a simple blue dress, too shy to speak and too stunned to believe she’d just been crowned Grapeland’s third Goober Queen.

That was 1947, and today, 93-year-old Anne Spence still laughs at the memory.

“I didn’t have any idea I was going to get it,” Spence said from her Grapeland home. “Some of the other girls were dressed so pretty, and there I was in my plain blue dress. When they called my name, I’d never been so shocked in all my life.”

Back then, Grapeland’s Goober Festival was a community affair organized by the Lions Club, celebrating the area’s booming peanut harvest and the farmers who helped put the small East Texas town on the map.

“They called it the Goober Festival, and the winner was the Goober Queen,” Spence said with a chuckle. “I think they might’ve even voted with pennies — I can’t quite remember — but it was all in good fun.”

The coronation was held in the school gym, complete with music, a big crowd, and, that year, a performance by a group of Texas A&M singers.

“They told me I had to pick one of those boys to dance with,” Spence said, her voice rising with laughter. “And I didn’t even know how to dance! I was scared to death. But I finally decided I’d just relax and enjoy it, because it was the last time I’d ever do something like that. And I did enjoy it — very much.”

Spence grew up just outside Grapeland on the old Murray farm, where her father managed the cotton and cattle operation.

“We lived as far out as you could get,” she said. “The sun rose between our barns.”

Her childhood memories are steeped in the rhythms of small-town life: the two banks, the movie theater that ran Friday night double features, and the thrill of finally being old enough to stay for the midnight show.

“Back then, we didn’t have much, but it felt like we had everything,” she said. “Everybody knew each other, and everybody helped each other.”

She remembers Grapeland during and after World War II, when soldiers came home and the little town began to grow.

“When the boys came back, everything changed,” she said. “They learned how to take care of the land better — keep fertilizer on it, stop the soil from blowing away. It was wonderful for cattle, and then the peanut farmers started doing real well. That’s what really put Grapeland on the map.”

Spence’s journey didn’t end with her high school crown. After graduating, she earned a twirling scholarship to Washington University in St. Louis, then transferred to the University of Houston. Along the way, she met her husband, who returned from military service and took a job at the coast.

That’s when opportunity — and history — came calling.

“I started working for NASA when they came,” Spence said proudly. “I worked on the Apollo missions. We printed all the words that were said — the lift-off, the transmissions, all that. It was a wonderful experience.”

The once-shy farm girl who blushed her way through a coronation in Grapeland ended up contributing to one of America’s greatest achievements, working on the Apollo moon missions. 

Spence eventually returned to Grapeland in the 1980s, and been back home ever since, attending Peanut Queen pageants — and cherishing the community that raised her.

But she worries about what she sees as a loss of civic pride and participation among younger generations.

“It breaks my heart that more girls don’t get involved,” she said. “We’ve lost something. You’ve got to be involved with your school and your town — they go together. I don’t know why it’s different now, but we’ve certainly lost it.”

Asked what advice she’d give to the next generation of Grapeland youth, Spence didn’t hesitate.

“I’d tell them to be honest, be truthful, help your neighbor, and keep God in your heart,” she said. “If you do that, you’ve done a lot.”

Today, as Grapeland celebrates the 80th Annual Peanut Festival, the modern-day Peanut Queens follow in the footsteps of women like Anne Spence — whose reign began with a handful of pennies and a humble blue dress in a dusty high school gym.

“I still remember that night,” Spence said, her voice softening. “It meant a lot to me, and it always has. The whole town came together. Everyone did their part. It was a community thing, and it was wonderful.”

Eight decades later, Grapeland is still coming together — for parades, for pageants, and for the sense of family that never quite fades.

And somewhere in the crowd this weekend, you might just find Anne Spence smiling — the Goober Queen who helped start it all.

Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]