As in most rural regions, fairs and festivals are a core part of Ozarks culture. What they recognize differs depending on the place, but regardless of whether it’s about apples or apple butter or pumpkins or old-time music, they share a common factor: People who make them possible in support of community good.
That’s true in rural southwest Missouri, where Pat and Peggy Napper were recently chosen as grand marshals of the 2026 Billings Community Fair.
The couple, married 64 years, invested decades in supporting their neighbors. Pat, born on the same farm where he lives at 90, was a longtime school bus driver and basketball and football referee. Peggy was the first school nurse in the next town over, a role she held through generations of kids. They’ve long been active in a local church. They didn’t want to become celebrities, but they are famous among their neighbors.
“It is quite an honor,” Peggy told me. “You feel something kind of special. First of all, ‘Why? What have I done to get this? You try to think, ‘What did I do that was good enough?’ The only thing I can think: We’ve just been here a long time. But we’ve been in the community a long time, joined in a lot of things, not done any more than anybody else. We’re all just kind of in it together. But it is kind of a fun thing.”
In my travels, it seems that this type of close-to-home commitment isn’t as common as it once was. There could be a lot of reasons for that expanded communication technology and faster transportation being two things that have opened possibilities for people to not engage with their neighbors very much, or not at all.
“Why we need to go so far away to be entertained, I don’t know,” Peggy said. “I like to think that when I go uptown, that all those people I see are my friends.”
Even though some closer-to-home tendencies may have eroded over time, I feel safe in saying that people still crave connection. And even things as simple — or complex —as planning a small town fair can be a way to build those relationships. All it takes is someone willing to step up.
And, at times, maybe that is someone who simply wants to belong.
Coming to a Home Unknown
I’d seen the post about the Nappers’ selection as its grand marshals, and was struck by the “everyday” beauty of that choice. I wanted to learn more about them and the fair, which celebrates 60 years in 2026. So I wrote a message to the site, and that’s how I met another fair organizer, Stephanie Dobbs, who helps manage the Billings Community Fair’s Facebook page.
I expected to hear from Dobbs that the fair’s aging committee needs help; that younger people aren’t stepping up. Those are realities sadly shared by many events and community traditions across the region.
While I did learn that Billings can use more volunteers, I also heard a story I didn’t expect: Dobbs wasn’t from the region. Formerly a Boston resident, she never expected to be there. Yet today, she never wants to leave.
“This is my forever home,” she said of the place she moved to nearly a decade ago. “I’m so glad to have come here and met these people, and they’ve been very welcoming, which is nice because you don’t hear that a lot. They’re stuck with me now.”
A garden-tractor pull was part of the fair’s Friday night lineup. (Photo by Kaitlyn McConnell)
It was her husband’s connections that drew Dobbs to southwest Missouri; the family owned property there, and the house was empty. Would she want to relocate?
“It took me about five months to say ‘yes’ because I was like, ‘What is in Missouri?’” she recalled. She eventually agreed — trading her big-city experience for farmlands and a community with German roots dating to 1871.
She soon realized the answer to that question: People who cared.
“I loved my community then — I didn’t realize it wasn’t the best community. It was what I lived in, and I did my best to make it better,” Dobbs said of her previous home. “But then when we moved here, I was like, ‘This is a different ballgame. Why is everybody waving at us? We just moved here.’
“That little two-finger ‘farm’ wave threw me off. I’m like, ‘Do they know us?’” she adds of a greeting often exchanged by drivers on rural roads. “Now I’m like, ‘If you don’t wave, why are you being so rude?’”
Dobbs says she’s become a farmer, with goats, chickens and ducks on her property. She’s also using her energy to try to give back to the place of about 1,000 people that welcomed her so warmly by serving on the school board and the fair board.
“There’s a group of us in town — we call ourselves the Department of Fun, because we put on a bunch of events,” she said. But local support also extends to stepping up in moments of crisis.
“We’ve had storms, and I’ve had droves of people just pull up: ‘What do you need?’” she added. “You don’t even have to know them, but we take care of each other, and we take care of others.”
That neighborliness extends to community causes, like the Billings Library, which for a decade has been staffed by volunteers. Locals are also working to raise funds to start a new senior center.
At the end of the day, Dodds has seen the value of what rural communities do so well. They have the power to care. And in the context of social connection, the efforts in Billings boil down to one thing that all rural spaces can do: “We bring local people together to do local things,” she said.
Passing Down Tradition in Community Moments
The Billings Community Fair, a tradition started many years ago, stopped for a time, and now has been run 60 years in its current form.
The fair used to be on the small town’s main street, but was moved years ago to a grassy area near the school and an arena. Among tents for vendors, a duck pond and dunk tank raise money for school causes. They have an exhibition area where locals enter plants, flowers and sewing projects. Music is part of the experience, and on the day I visited, a garden-tractor pull drew many souped-up lawn mowers and their optimistic drivers.
Giant inflatables replaced the carnival rides they used to rent, which are a bit too pricey these days. In typical Ozarks fashion, we make do with what we have.
Teenagers gather in groups, peering at vendor tents. Other folks walk through the grounds, ice cream cones in hand. Despite scorching temperatures, a gentle breeze wanders through the grounds, and folks seem to be having a good time.
Games and booths – from vendors to the volunteer library and the extension council – were also part of the 2026 Billings Community Fair. (Photo by Kaitlyn McConnell)
But in the meantime, the announcer comes over the loud speaker and says: “Five minutes until the queen is crowned!”
I learned it’s more than a beauty pageant: each participant, one from each high school class, is required to hold a minimum of three summer fundraisers — from bake sales to selling snow cones — to collectively raise about $4,000 for school causes. Each one also writes an essay, and each is interviewed about it by a panel of judges.
“This competition is not easy, as it requires a lot of dedication, hard work, and the help of our community,” said Elizabeth Edwards, the program’s sponsor, as the crowd waited to hear who had won. “Being a queen candidate is not easy, and unless you have done it, you have no idea how much work it actually is.”
Edwards does know — she was part of the court years ago. Today, she stays connected to the community as a teacher and a coach at Billings, and by leading the queen contest herself.
“I would like to thank the Billings Community Fair Board and all the volunteers for their hard work — and not only the fair, but all the other small things that make our community,” Edwards said “These people are truly the heart of our fair, and I don’t think I would be standing up here without them.”
She did remind the crowd that volunteers are welcome, and those who give their time can even get a special T-shirt like the one she was wearing.
But I bet neither Edwards nor Dobbs is really there for the shirt.
“When my son does have children, I want them to be able to remember the fair like people did 20 years ago and 40 years ago,” Dobbs said. “I want them to be excited to come out that weekend. That Labor Day weekend is ‘our’ weekend. Everybody comes out to Billings. It’s to show off our town, to show off our camaraderie and our just being awesome.”
I’m sure the folks in Billings would welcome you to come visit the fair next year to witness that awesomeness – as would the group planning local traditions in your neck of the woods. Or, like the Nappers’ example, simply choosing to be involved in the everyday moments.
Because, as Dobbs puts it, “Without the support, things die.”
The post Ozarks Notebook: Missouri Fair Carries on Generations of Tradition appeared first on The Daily Yonder.
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