Hempstead County resident wins 140 ribbons at 2025 Southwest Arkansas District Fair
By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Nov. 12, 2025
Fast Facts:
- LaJuan Thompson has won hundreds of blue ribbons since 1999
- Thompson awarded for entries in horticulture, canning, sewing and baked goods
- Thompson is member of Crossroads Extension Homemakers Council club in Hempstead County
(1,086 words)
(Newsrooms: With photos)
HOPE, Ark. — In 1999, LaJuan Thompson submitted her first entries of canned and baked goods, sewing projects and horticulture items to the Hempstead County Fair. Since then, Thompson has won — by her count — “hundreds and hundreds” of blue ribbons at the local and district level, including 95 first-place awards at the 2025 Hempstead County Fair.
Thompson, 88, and her late husband, Johnny, retired in 1995 and built their “dream home” in the Crossroads community of Hope, Arkansas. After planting their garden in the summer of 1999, Thompson said she followed the example of her fellow Extension Homemakers Council members and entered her first items in the fair.
“When I first started out, I didn’t get that many blue ribbons, but each year, it seems like I just got more and more,” Thompson said. “I’ve got hundreds and hundreds of blue ribbons, and I have not thrown them away. I’ve thought that someday I’ll make something out of these.”
At the 2025 Southwest Arkansas District Fair alone, Thompson took home 140 ribbons in total: Eighty-two first-place ribbons, 44 second-place ribbons and 14 third-place ribbons. Thompson said her garden is the source for her horticulture and canned goods entries.
“If it grows in southwest Arkansas, I plant it in the garden,” Thompson said. “I start out real early with planting my potatoes. Then I plant my greens — turnip greens, kale, radishes, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, the cruciferous vegetables. Then I plant the beans: green beans, pinto beans, butter beans, purple hull peas, cream peas.”
Thompson said she also grows blueberries, eggplants, several types of peppers and okra.
Terrie James, extension staff chair of Hempstead County for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said Thompson has “set a remarkable standard for excellence among exhibitors” at the county’s fair.
“She serves as an inspiring example for younger participants throughout the community,” James said. “Her dedication and skill are evident in every project she undertakes, particularly in food preservation, where her entries consistently earn blue-ribbon recognition. The variety and quality of her preserved foods are nothing short of phenomenal.”
Thompson said she gives away most of her canned goods, including jams, jellies and vegetables. She also submits potted plants and cut flowers to the fair.
“I love my flowers, so I enter lots of flowers,” Thompson said. “That’s an interesting thing, learning more about plants and how to take care of them, and sharing the plants with different people. I don’t talk to my plants, but they talk to me. If they wilt, I know they’re asking for water.”
Thompson said her pecan pie and peanut brittle entries have done “extremely well.”
“I’ve never won less than a blue ribbon on my pecan pie,” she said. “Several times they have also gotten ‘Best in Show.’ Baked goods are something you do at the last minute. These other things, I can work on all year.
“One year I entered this Dahlia, it was gorgeous,” Thompson said. “It was about the size of a dinner plate, it was purple. I remember that quite well.”
“LaJuan’s hard work extends beyond the kitchen,” James said. “Her floral and produce gardens are a testament to her passion and dedication, producing outstanding results year after year at the fair.”
Throughout the year, Thompson said she keeps a Christmas tree up in her home decorated exclusively with ribbons she won at the Four States Fair.
A way of life
For Thompson, tending to a flourishing garden — and being a responsible steward of the garden’s bounty — comes naturally.
“When I was a child, we lived on a farm, and we grew just about everything we ate,” Thompson said. “I helped Mother can, and she liked flowers, and I helped with that. It’s just a way of life. When I married my husband, we didn’t start out with a garden. But later on, when we bought a place, we learned that we could just break up a yard and have a garden. So that’s what we did.
“We gardened together,” she said. “He’d do the hard work, and I’d do the easy part. He did the plowing, and I did the planting and harvesting.”
Thompson worked as a seventh- and eighth-grade language arts teacher for 30 years, and her husband worked as a high school sports coach. The couple had three children and were married for 65 years. Johnny passed away in 2022.
“He was the love of my life,” Thompson said. “He enjoyed every bit of that farming, he really did.”
This Thanksgiving, Thompson said she is looking forward to meeting her 11th great-grandchild, a new baby girl.
Education and fellowship
As a member of the Crossroads EHC club in Hempstead County, Thompson said she values spending time with women who share her same interests.
“I enjoy the fellowship, being with the ladies who have the same goals that I have,” Thompson said. “Making for a happy family, providing things for your family and for others, and helping out in the community any way we can.”
“LaJuan’s dedication, creativity and generosity of spirit truly embody the values we strive to promote,” James said. “Her work inspires others to take pride in their skills and give back to the community.”
Thompson said she encourages younger people to get involved with their local EHC club, as members around the state have plenty of knowledge to pass on.
“I think once they learn to sew and learn to cook — and I think more young people are becoming interested in those arts — that they’ll want to be a part of it,” Thompson said. “We older people are always glad to help. We’ll be glad to show them what we know and help them learn to do these things that we enjoy.
“Being in EHC has been a really great blessing to me and to my family, and to our community,” she said. “It’s just a wonderful privilege to be a part of it.”
Thompson said she plans to create something using all the prize-winning ribbons she’s collected over the years — something that “will be lasting, and that I can pass on, maybe to the extension office.
“I am thinking about doing something with these ribbons, making something, but nothing has dawned on me yet — I don’t think a quilt would be serviceable, and I’m a practical person,” Thompson said. “If you can’t eat it or wear it, you don’t need it. I just want to come up with something that will be pretty, that I can be proud of and that will be lasting.”
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall
rkhall@uada.edu
@RKHall_
501-671-2061