BENTONVILLE — Jerry Hamm of Hindsville smiled big - really big - when she finally found one of the reasons she goes to the Benton County Fair each year.

“I was so excited when they told me the fair was here because that meant I would get to see you,” Hamm said as she hugged Ava Griffin.

Griffin, 87, lives in the country just south of Highfill. She has been going to the county fair since she was 12.

“Whenever I think of the fair, I think of her,” Hamm said.

“She is always there. She’s dependable and she has done a lot for the county.”

Griffin has been a superintendent at the county fair for more than 60 years.

She began her years as suprintendent overseeing the canned fruits and vegetables. She now oversees and judges the educational booths housed inside the exhibit hall.

Superintendents oversee fair departments and are responsible for ensuring animals and items are registered and presented to the judges for competition, said Miriam Rowe, a member of the Benton County Fair Board.

Departments include dairy cattle, swine, sheep, flowers, baked goods and the educational booths Griffin oversees, Rowe said.

The first year Griffin went to the fair, she remembers watching the parade and eating a bucket of homemade fried chicken her mother made. Griffin has been hooked on the fair and allof its events since, a period spanning 75 years.

“The fair wasn’t near as big back then,” Griffin said, “and I never dreamed back then the fair would be in my front yard.”

The county fair was held in downtown Bentonville until 2007 when it moved to its current location near Vaughn. Griffin grew up in Vaughn, graduating from Vaughn High School in 1941.

The fair has been a big part of her life, Griffin said. Her daughters competed for a chance to be crowned fair queen. Her son began showing cattle when he was 9. Her granddaughter, Julie, the person Griffin calls her “sunshine,” now competes at the fair.

“I just love it. I enjoy learning things and seeing all of the exhibits and I really love watching the kids show cattle,” Griffin said.

Griffin’s favorite county fair memory happened when her husband, Lee, was able to break away from the family farm one year in time to watch their son, Jim, show his cows.

“He had so much pride in his eyes,” Griffin said as tears came to hers.

Janice Shoffner, the 4-H youth development agent with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in Benton County, is one of the many people Griffin watched growing up at the fair through the years.

Shoffner said Griffin became like an adoptive grandmother to her own children when they were growing up.

“She has always been that extra special person for everyone,” Shoffner said.

Community News, Pages 12 on 09/01/2010