ASHLAND — Mayor Matt Miller announced the 174th Ashland County Fair senior king and queen winners on Tuesday, which was also Senior Citizens’ Day.
Joan Turner, 95, was crowned queen and Bob Hartman, 91, was crowned king. They were awarded crowns, satchels and gift bags for their respective wins.
Turner resides at Kingston of Ashland Lutheran Village nursing home. She was born in Fairhope, Ohio, but went on to live in Ashland for 68 years and counting.
Turner was a stay-at-home mom to her daughter, but she was active in the community. She was a Girl Scout leader, room mother and served on the board of the Ashland County Historical Society.
Today Turner enjoys staying as busy as she can. She likes playing cards and bingo, baking potato chip cookies, exercising and going to Happy Hour. Turner is also on the Wii Bowling team.
Throughout life, she experienced a lot of loss, which included her husband, daughter and son-in-law. Despite this, Turner said she continues to choose joy.
“When you get to be 95, you’ve got to either have joy or sadness, and I chose joy, and I want to spread it to other people and so, I’m just a happy person,” Turner said.
Hartman was born in Shelby, but he went on to live, work and serve on city council in Crestline.
He only dated one woman, Wanda Lou Hartman, who he quickly married after a judge granted the couple permission because they were too young to do so on their own.
He met her on a blind date with a church group. They went on to have two children: a son and a daughter. They also have five grandchildren.
Hartman remained a devoted christian his whole life. He read his favorite bible verse, Philippians 4:13, to the crowd: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Hartman also said the most important life lesson he has learned is to be patient.
The other contestants were Sandy Hopple, JoAnn Strother and Thomas Windsor. Mayor Matt Miller introduced each of the five contestants and asked them questions about their lives.
Miller started by announcing that his wife, Rep. Melanie Miller (R-Ashland), would have loved to help emcee the event, but she is representing Ohio in Israel this week.
“She is one of four lawmakers from the state of Ohio who were invited to meet with the Prime Minister. I think they met with him yesterday,” Miller said.
“They’re actually there, I think, to learn about the security of the situation over there and so on,” Miller said.
After Miller presented information about each nominee and asked them questions, a panel of three judges decided the winners.
Those judges were Ashland County Common Pleas Court Judge David Stimpert, Municipal Court Judge John Good and Juvenile Probate Court Judge Karen DeSanto-Kellogg.