An original planner, wine vendor and consistent winner at Hennessey’s Wine & Chocolate Festival will be commemorated at the event with the first Curtis Turner Best of Show award.

The festival will be held at Memorial Park on Main Street from 2-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16.

Turner’s family will also be honored at this year’s festival, said Wes Hardin, festival co-chair and past president of the Hennessey United Association, sponsors of the festival.

Curtis’s wife, Sandy, and their children, also plan to host the Turner-Me-On Wine booth at the 2021 festival, Hardin said.

The Best of Show Memorial award to Turner was approved by the Hennessey United board of directors at its Thursday night meeting.

This will be the 10th year the non-profit civic group has conducted the festival that started in 2011. It was canceled last year due to the COVID pandemic.

Turner, who died in April at 68, was a big supporter of the festival. His friendly personality, family, and great-tasting wine drew everyone to his booth that has always been, and will continue to be, at the north end of Memorial Park.

Sandy “was the brains” of the operation, Curtis always said, about his “hobby that turned into more work and fun” than he’d imagined.

Their children Tracy, Travis and Tyler, also dropped their jobs and college work to come home and help their parents run the family wine booth each year at the festival.

He knew everyone in town, was a great story-teller, and greeted everyone with a smile who came to visit with him and his family at their booth.

He was always ready to help, and give advice, to others who wanted to make wine. He also enjoyed sharing his award-winning wine with others.

If there was any event going on in Hennessey then Curtis Turner was there cooking ribs, or helping out as a Lions Club or St. Joseph’s Catholic Church member, or his job as the town’s public works director.

He was a 1970 HHS graduate who spent high school summers as a roustabout and rig hand. He later became a brick mason, oilfield driller and tool pusher, then worked for the Town of Hennessey for 15 years before his death.

Best Wine and Sweet Tooth Awards

The Curtis Turner award will be chosen by three mystery judges, Teresa Oliver, co-chair of the festival, told the United board last week. The Best of Show award will be selected by those judges from the champion and reserve champion dry and sweet wine winners.

Plaques for the Best Sweet Tooth Award and wine winners have been ordered, Oliver said.

Advance Tickets at Town Hall

Advance tickets are available at Hennessey Town Hall and Way Out West in Enid, Cathy Howard, secretary, told the board. Tickets remain the same price this year at $20 per person for wine and chocolate, or $5 for chocolate only.

The price is the same on the day of the festival, but will save waiting in longer lines if purchased in advance.

Vendor Sign-ups Continue

All vendors must have samples of wine or chocolate at their booth. There is no charge for booth space, but vendors must sign up in advance. Contacts: Wes Hardin (wine, 405-853-0115) or Teresa Oliver (chocolate, 405-368-8741).

Oliver told the board she had 11 signed up for chocolate booths as of that night and had several others who were interested.

Hardin was not at this month’s meeting, but said Monday morning that seven wineries had signed up so far.

Getting Ready Plans

Board members discussed setting up Memorial Park with canopies, tables and chairs; phone setup to accept credit cards; volunteers for admission booths; wrist bands; wine glasses; reserve officers to block traffic and check ages of festival-goers before given wrist bands they are required to wear before wine is served to them; trash cans and two dumpsters at site; portable potty rental; parking sites and signage; shuttle carts; vendor goodie bags, helper for vendors to unload/empty trash cans; advertising/email promotions; firefighter ribeye sandwich booth.

Next Meeting Wednesday, Oct. 13

The board’s next meeting is 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, at the Wellness Mercantile. The board usually meets the third Thursday of each month, but changed the October date so it could meet before the festival.

At the Meeting

Board members at the September meeting were Stacy Cline, president; Tammy Lott-Hopkins, treasurer; Dagan Hardin, Bert Gritz, Ashland Crites, Barb Walter, and Oliver, vice president, and Howard, secretary. A guest at the meeting was Kim Gritz.

Members absent were Wes Hardin, Scott Hajek, Kaden Mitchell and Mariana Gonzalez.