Now, going on 33-years-old, the Parker County Peach
Festival has evolved into a community tradition, a huge
event attracting tens of thousands of people from across
the state and around the country. It’s now organized
by the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce and is the
Chamber’s chief annual fundraiser.
The Peach Festival is now a beloved and time-
honored tradition, always held in July, due to peak peach
season times.
Little did the ladies know that their small event would
turn into so much more.
“Jo had to go round up all the peach growers the
first year just to get peaches, [again] we hardly had any
peaches the first year,” said Walter Worthington. “After
that she kept in contact with them and they started bring-
ing peaches, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.
They [ Jo Worthington and Helen Brogdon] just kept
working at and kept working at it, and finally everyone
on the square was involved — almost everybody.”
Big things followed. Parker County was officially
named the Peach Capital of Texas by the State Legislature
in 1991. In 1986, the Texas peach crop was 9.5 million
pounds of peaches, selling for a total of over $3.5 million,
and equaling 39 cents per pound. The 1986 crop placed
Texas as number 18 in