News

Festival honors Apple Farmer of the Year

Peggy Laughter accepts the Apple Farmer of the Year Award on behalf of her husband, Billy, who died in June at age 84.

By Natasha Townsend, Published: September 1, 2017

Billy Laughter, an Edneyville native and fifth generation apple grower, was posthumously honored as this year’s Apple Farmer of the Year Award during the opening ceremony of the North Carolina Apple Festival.

Peggy Laughter, Billy’s wife, accepted the award on her husband’s behalf and thanked the United Community Bank and the Apple Festival. Billy passed away this June at 84 years old. The award was presented Friday at the opening ceremony of the Apple Festival.
“If you could build a man from scratch, give him all of life’s most beautiful qualities, and make him a farmer; we would come up with Billy Laughter,” one family member said.
Someone had asked the Laughter family if they would enter Billy for the award. Peggy’s son-in-law wrote the entry. “He thinks an awful of my husband,” Peggy said.
Billy came from a lineage of apple farmers. He was the fifth generation in his family to grow apples. His farm, Billy Laughter Orchards, has belonged to the Laughters since 1962, when Billy and Peggy bought 34 acres from Peggy’s brother. The land included the house in which Billy and Peggy raised their children.
Laughter was passionate about agriculture from a young age. He graduated from North Carolina State University in 1955 as a horticulture major, Peggy said. “He worked on a farm and took care of the greenhouse” at NC State University throughout his college years Peggy added.
Since Billy’s passing, his son has taken over the farm, Peggy said. The orchard has a pick-your-own orchard and also sells apples wholesale.
His love of apple farming led to his 20-year tenure as president of the WNC Apple Growers Association and service as president of the WNC Apple Growers Co-op in Edneyville for many years, Peggy said.
“He loved doing what he did,” Peggy says of Billy when he farmed. He rarely got to attend the apple festival because it was in the middle of apple season and he didn’t leave the orchard.
Billy loved farming because he enjoyed “being outside and meeting people” Peggy says. “His last few years, he didn’t do much farming, but he took people down to pick their own apples and helped with the maintenance part of the farm.”
A lifetime deacon of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, he was also a member of the Edneyville Grange and an honorary lifetime member of the NC Apple Growers Association.
“I think he would be very humbled,” Peggy says if Billy were here to accept his award. “I am myself. He would be very honored and feel like he didn’t deserve it.”
Sponsored by United Community Bank, the award is in its ninth year. After nominations come in, a panel made up of community members chooses the winner.
“He (Billy) was nominated by his family, and the reasons they gave on the nomination were the way he could give back to other farmers in the community and people that needed help,” said Karen Yockey of UCB, who coordinates the award.
Fair Waggoner, a Henderson County native and city president at UCB, began the award through a sponsorship.
“She’s always willing to donate to community events,” Yockey said. “She wanted to give special consideration to someone deserving of the award. She wants to focus on apple farmers because we wouldn’t have a festival without that.”