Virginia’s County Fair Cooking Queen

Virginia's Country Fair Cooking Queen: Linda Skeens

Last summer, the Internet was abuzz with word of a mysterious cook from Virginia sweeping the competition at county fairs. Turns out, her name is Linda Skeens—a wife of 58 years, mother of three, grandmother of five (soon to be six), and great-grandmother of two—whose cooking and craftiness had made her a local legend many moons ago. And the rest of the world was just finding out.

What the Internet didn’t know at the time was that Linda was no new competitor. Since entering her first fair competition 30 years ago, she’d amassed more than 1,000 ribbons tucked away in closets and corners of her Castlewood, Virginia, home. But it wasn’t until the Virginia-Kentucky District Fair posted the results to Facebook for the first time that word spread. At that particular fair, Linda earned first place in cakes, pies, brownies, and sweet breads categories and won first, second, and third places in the cookies, savory breads, and candy divisions. And it wasn’t because she was the only person entering. There were other competitors, but Linda’s home-cooked delicacies were just that good. She also earned top awards in canning and quilt embroidery. It wasn’t long before Texas radio host Mason Moussette caught wind and spread the news to TikTok, and soon, people were writing songs about Linda, crafting T-shirts, creating online fan clubs, and collectively asking, “Who is Linda Skeens?”

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