RRV Fair Press Room

The Red River Valley Fair Association has announced the dates for the 2008 fair. Tuesday, September 30 - Saturday, October 4, 2008. Also announced all food concessions for the 2008 RRV Fair will be booked through the Red River Valley Fair Association. To inquire about food concessions or any other items please contact the association office at 903.785.7971 or use this link to view and print the Food Concession Application.

We would like to express our gratitude to BJ McCoy and the Lamar County Sheriff's Department for building our new gazebo next to the Community Exhibit Center. They did a wonderful job. (photos to come)

The Red River Valley Fair Association has just completed a remodel of Building B. It looks wonderful!

Tim Masters, General Manager of the Red River Valley Fair Association was elected to the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Fairs and Events at the annual convention held January 11-14 in Houston.

Delegates from the Red River Valley Fair Association that attended the convention were: Brian & Joi Brumley, Todd and Tracy Denny, Jeff Kinslow, Carolyn Parson, Rita Jane Haynes, Executive Assistant, and Tim Masters, General Manager.

Tim Masters, former cable television systems manager, has been named executive officer of the Red River Valley Fair Association to succeed Rita Jane Haynes, the association’s executive director.

The leadership realignment was recently approved by the Fair Association’s Board of Directors, along with a change in job titles. Haynes had been executive director, but the board opted to change that title to executive officer and at the same time adding the temporary position of executive assistant.

Haynes has spent 30 years with the Red River Valley Fair Association, first as a volunteer and member of the fair board. In 1981, she was named secretary of the Fair Association and in 1987 she was named executive director, a paid but part-time position. In 1997, she left her position with the First National Bank of Paris to become a full-time Fair Association employee.

During the past 30 years, the Fair Association has made great strides, constructing four buildings, two livestock barns, and two covered pavilions, in addition to the 1987 remodel of the historic fairgrounds coliseum.

Haynes, a native of Lamar County, was awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Texas Association of Fairs and Events this year, the organization’s highest honor. Last year, she was recognized by the organization with the “Fair Manager of the Year” award. She had previously served as a member of the TAFE Board of Directors, and in 1993 she served as president of the organization.

She and her husband, Bill, have one daughter, Tammy Riley, and a granddaughter, Mallary Matney.

Masters, a native of Mena, Ark., spent his early years working with the family-owned cable operation during the formative years of cable TV service. A graduate of Mena (Ark.) High School, Masters attended Westark Community College at Fort Smith, now the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

With the exception of a five-year stint in retail sales and as manager of the Mena Chamber of Commerce, Masters has been associated with the cable TV industry for 27 years. After his family sold their cable TV business in 1983, Masters became system manager for TCA Cable TV in Louisiana and in 1988, he was transferred to the TCA offices in Conroe. Then, in October, 1993, he was named manager of the cable system in Paris. The past two years, Masters served as system manager in Mount Pleasant.

He and his wife, Lisa, have two daughters, Anna Masters of Fayetteville, Ark. and Hillary DelRio, who attends Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant; and two sons, Neal DelRio of Hot Springs, Ark. and Alex Masters, a junior at North Lamar High School. The Masters attend the First Baptist Church of Paris where they are active workers in the nursery.

Masters is a member of the Visitors and Convention Committee of the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce, a past president of the Kiwanis Club of Paris, and former member of the board of the Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the Reno Street Commission and has been a member of the board of the Red River Valley Fair Association since 1996.

In accepting his role as executive officer of the Fair Association, Masters said he hopes to continue the precedent that Haynes has set.

In January a delegation from the RRV Fair Association traveled to Houston for the annual TAF&E Convention. Our very own Rita Jane Haynes received the Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement award.

Rita Jane pictured with Tony Diaz with North American Midway Entertainment, Inc., the sponsor of the Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement awards.