Dateline: April 24, 2003

Hill wins turkey crown

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

In the narrowest victory in history, Tommy Hill was crowned Donley County’s third Turkey King during the annual Turkey Strut Festival last Saturday, beating his nearest opponent by a margin of less than six bits.

Election officials counted the returns three times Saturday to prevent any calls for recounts and even double-checked their figures on Monday just to be sure.

In accordance with long-established tradition, deposed king Mutt Graham was on hand to crown his successor.

Hill’s final tally was $277.67, which set a new record for the most votes cast for a single candidate. Overall, $804.23 was put in the money jars of king candidates this year. That beats the record of $661.40 set way back during the controversial election of 2001.

His Highness was gracious in victory and pledged to devote himself to the betterment of the county.

“We support tourism, and that’s what this is all about,” King Hill said. “I’ll strut up and down Kearney Street if that’s what it takes to bring more tourists to Clarendon.”

Coming in second for the second year in a row was Nancy Davis with a total vote of $276.95. And bringing up the rear were the Osburns – Benny in third place with $65.36 and Annette in fourth place with $63.58 – and Mark White (the banker) in last place with a paltry $46.12.

King Hill’s campaign made a clean sweep of all competitions this year. His proxy – Trey Brown – beat all other candidates’ proxies in the Dairy Queen banana-spilt eating contest, diving face first into the treat and consuming it with gusto. Hill rewarded Brown with a second split that he also consumed with no signs of being sick.

Hill’s team in the mattress race also came in first as lead runner Brice Fletcher practically dragged Hill down one block of Kearney Street in 12 seconds flat.

Other activities were held throughout the day, although some evening festivities were called off due to windy weather.

Proceeds from the annual Turkey King election benefit the Donley County Tourism Council.