2024 Big pumpkin winner Dewayne Porter, Virginia, 717 lbs. Festival Chairman Cathy Jeffers with weigh-off sponsors sign.
20241006
2024 Big Pumpkin Winner 717 lbs. Weigh-off sponsors
Walter Manis, Virginia, green squash winner, 461.4 lbs.
Walter Manis, Virginia, green squash winner, 461.4 lbs.
Gordon Martin and Dr. Paige Gernt – 2024 Allardt Great Pumpkin Festival King and Queen.
The Great Pumpkin has chosen Gordon Martin and Dr. Paige Gernt as the 2024 Allardt Great Pumpkin Festival King and Queen.
Gordon and Paige have deep ties to Allardt and to the Pumpkin Festival. Paige's roots in Allardt and Fentress County run several generations deep. Her parents are Lowanda and the late Charles Gernt, who themselves were honored as festival king and queen in 2007.
Grandparents Walter and Flossie Gernt and great grandfather, Bruno Gernt, were among the early founders and community leaders of Allardt. Notice the name of the park across the highway – the Bruno Gernt Memorial Park.
Paige's maternal grandparents were Hoods – Porter and Gertie of Jamestown. The Hood name is prominent among the very first settlers of Fentress County and in local mining and industry, as well as public service.
Paige and her sister Marti attended Allardt Elementary School and both graduated from York Agricultural Institute in Jamestown, forging life-long friendships and gaining deep appreciation for the values and culture as well as the natural beauty of their home community.
The son of Odell and Connie Martin, Gordon grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. After attending the University of South Carolina, he met Paige in Charleston. She had graduated from the University of Tennessee Medical School and was completing her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Throughout their marriage Gordon and Paige have treasured the pumpkin festival as one of their favorite annual events and an opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. Paige has attended 30 of the past festivals and Gordon almost as many. Eager not to miss the festival, Gordon once joined Paige by flying to Allardt in a small plane. He buzzed the pumpkin festival, alerting his friend and fellow pilot Clyde Stephens to come and pick him up at the Jamestown Airport.
As a pilot, Gordon has worked in plane restoration and sales. He is currently a manager with Allardt Land Company and oversees the family farm, including the area where the Pumpkin Festival car show happens each year. Gordon's deep appreciation for the local landscape and its natural beauty have long impressed festival goers. With helper Troy Rains, he is diligent to make sure the farm area looks pristine by the first Saturday in October.
The family lives in Cookeville where their son Gernt Martin is a senior at Cookeville High School and Dr. Paige Gernt has been a practicing ob/gyn physician for 19 years.
We are thankful for this family and their service to Allardt, the pumpkin festival, Fentress County, and the entire Upper Cumberland region.
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