To the new fair queen, the county fair is home.
Emma Spurgeon, of Trafalgar, is Miss Johnson County 2020. Spurgeon is 19 years old and a 2019 graduate of Indian Creek High School. She will be a sophomore at Purdue University, where she studies agronomy with a focus in agribusiness and marketing, and she is minoring in farm management.
A former 10-year 4-H member and a lifelong Johnson County resident, Spurgeon calls the fair her home because she has attended every year since she can remember.
"This is what I have done my whole life. I’m looking forward to helping other 4-Hers achieve their goals and reward them," Spurgeon said. "It has been a dream of mine forever (to be Miss Johnson County); it really has."
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Spurgeon was one of nine contestants in the 2020 Johnson County 4-H and Agricultural Fair Queen contest Sunday evening. The event, known for being the kickoff to fair week, looked a little different this year. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the public was not allowed to attend the pageant, and only the contestants’ families watched from the stands. Everyone else watched from home.
For the most part, the pageant went on like normal, except that it was live-streamed. Each contestant participated in two rounds of the contest, the on-stage question and evening wear round, and the new "fair spirit" round.
During the question portion, each contestant was given a word, and then had to say what the word meant to them. Spurgeon’s word was "perseverance," which she said is something that challenges you and pushes you to be the person you want to be, even when times are hard. For the fair spirit round, she colorfully described one of her earliest fair memories when she was just five years old.
She vividly recounted a time after the 2006 queen pageant when she decided to climb to the top of a nearby pig pen, and it did not end well, she said. She toppled off the top of the pen and dislocated her elbow, causing a panic from everyone in the arena trying to rush her to the hospital, she said.
Spurgeon said it wasn’t necessarily her fondest memory, but it was one that stuck with her.
"Now, this isn’t my favorite memory I have here, but it is one that will stick with me forever. Not only because of the extra bone in my elbow, but because of all the love and support I was given that day," she said.
Spurgeon won the judges over, and she was crowned Miss Congeniality and Miss Johnson County at the end of the night. Sporting silver glitter face masks, Spurgeon and the queen’s court were crowned on stage and posed for photos together. Emily Carter, Lexi Giddens, Kylee Burnside and Makayla Cory are also part of the 2020 court.
Now, Spurgeon’s year-long reign as queen begins. Miss Johnson County and her court serve as the hostesses of the fair all week long by handing out ribbons at competitions, attending events, visiting local restaurants and being positive role models for 4-H members.
This year is very different though, Spurgeon said. She and the court have to wear their masks constantly, and they have to sit at events from the attached cattle barn instead of inside the main arena, she said.
"It’s different, but I’m thankful that we’re here and still doing something," she said.
Spurgeon grew up on her family farm, surrounded by agriculture. She hopes to one day run her own agronomy business where she will study soil and give advice to farmers about planting crops. She is working to complete her first internship with Beck’s Hybrids in Atlanta, Indiana, where she goes out to scout corn and soybean fields for possible weeds, insects or diseases on the crops.
"I grew up on a family farm, so I’ve always had a passion for growing crops," Spurgeon said. "In high school, I did soil judging in FFA, and I was pretty good at it, so I decided that I wanted to go to college and look at dirt for the rest of my life."
As Miss Johnson County, Spurgeon wants to show other young 4-Hers that anything is possible, she said.
"No one would have ever guessed I would be fair queen. I’ve always been the person that’s been outside either under the stands to help clean up or always in the goat barn … I wasn’t a pageanty person," she said. "I want all these girls to know that just because you don’t think that you can, you absolutely can, and it’s not about being the prettiest—it’s just about being yourself."
Spurgeon and the queen’s court will serve in their roles for the rest of the year, attending other county events such at the Greenwood Freedom Festival and the Downtown Franklin Holiday Lighting.
Spurgeon will also compete in the 2022 Indiana State Fair Queen Pageant. The contest always takes place at the beginning of each year to crown a new queen from more than 80 contestants from each of Indiana’s county fairs to reign at the state fair that same year.
But the 2021 pageant was canceled, along with this year’s state fair, due to the pandemic. So, all the county queens crowned this year and next year will participate in the 2022 contest.
