The Associates of LCU, one of Lubbock Christian University’s (LCU) longest continual supporters, hosted their pie booth at the South Plains Fair for the 65th consecutive year.
The Associates of LCU, founded in 1958—only one year after the university was established—is a group consisting of mainly women which has supported LCU for the past 65 years through a variety of endeavors, including their longest-lasting one, the South Plains Fair pie booth.
In that day and time, a number of women were housewives for whom scratch cooking was common. The group needed a consistent annual fundraising project, so in 1959, Associates member Joan Rigney—whose father-in-law J.C. Rigney was one of LCU’s five charter trustees—started the Associates’ pie concession tradition at the South Plains Fair with a booth in the merchant’s building. Jane Carter, whose husband Jack was an Assistant to President F.W. Mattox, worked with Joan in that first year to get the booth off the ground, and fellow members brought homemade pies to be sold by the slice.
Today, Linda Durbin Willis oversees the booths, and Rigney’s daughter, Donna (Rigney) Hamil, helps coordinate the nearly 100 volunteers who contribute to the effort over the nine days of the fair each year.
“As a student, I didn't know about the associates,” Willis shared, explaining that it wasn’t until she had two children of her own that she was introduced to the organization—but once she became a part of the Associates, her passion for the group blossomed. After serving for years, she took over the fair booths five years ago. “I became chair of the fair, and my husband, Richard, has partnered with me in running the fair.”
“It’s remarkable how many ladies make and donate pies for the pie booth,” Hamil emphasized. “Without that, it would not have the success it has—that lets us make 100% profit. So many churches pass around signup lists, and we even have people will call and say, ‘Hey, I'm bringing pies to my shift,’ and things like that. It is such a huge group effort.”
Not only does the pie booth provide financially for LCU—it’s been a major part of the $3,000,000+ the group has raised to support the university since 1958—it’s also an event that connects its members and the surrounding community each year.
“It's important to the community, because they keep coming back,” shared Willis. “A lot of people go to the fair just to eat, and we have people coming from the office buildings around the fair that come at noon, and they usually come get a dessert from us. We see lots of friends that we worked with in the past, friends from surrounding churches—we even get people from Plainview that come and work in our booth. It's just fun to see people you haven't seen all year, but you know you’ll see them at the fair.”
For Hamil, her service to the booth is an important way to honor her late mother, and it’s a powerful reminder of some of her favorite memories.
“To carry on that legacy is such an honor,” Hamil shared. “She loved to bake and cook, and she fed people all the time. If you were sick, you could expect a pie or a pan of brownies or something. Food was her love language, and I'm glad to carry that on.”
The Associates hosted their pie booth for the 65th year alongside their corn booth at the South Plains Fair, which ran from September 20-28.