South Annville Twp. resident crowned 2026 PA Fair Queen at pageant

Oliva Morrissey may not have been raised on a farm, but she is a farm girl at heart. 

In the coming year, she’ll get to promote agriculture as the 2026 Pennsylvania Fair Queen, a title she won on Saturday during the 113th edition of the Pennsylvania State Association of County Fairs and Pennsylvania State Showmen’s Association in Hershey.

“I think I just have a very deep appreciation for all that farmers do. And I recognize the fact that if they didn’t do what they do, then we wouldn’t have the luxuries we have. We wouldn’t be able to function as a society because they truly do so much for us,” Morrissey said in a telephone interview with LebTown. “I really would like to recognize that, especially because while I’ve been here in Savannah (Georgia) for college, I’ve spoken to so many people who truly have no idea about anything related to agriculture.”

No agricultural knowledge means no appreciation for the men and women who toil to produce the food we eat and the clothes we wear, according to Morrissey.

“They don’t know how their food is made. They don’t know how the fibers in their clothing are made. They don’t understand farmers and what they do. And so for me, this has been a huge wake up call as to trying to make a difference in helping other people understand agriculture because, unfortunately, it is an issue that people don’t learn about in school,” she added.  

The 19-year-old daughter of Jim and Amy Morrissey of South Annville Township, the 2025 graduate of Annville-Cleona High School is a freshman at Savannah College of Arts and Design in Georgia. She is majoring in fashion design with a minor in fabrics, which is a subject she says has close ties to agriculture. 

“Because of my minor with fibers, I think, right at this moment, I’d be interested in exploring the agricultural (career) side of things. So exploring how can we incorporate wool, and the fact that that comes from sheep farming, and how can we incorporate wool into more clothing as it is a very important fiber, and it is very useful,” Morrissey said. “There’s a lot of misconceptions about wool which I won’t get into right now, but it is something I’m passionate about. And also looking into sustainable fabrics like cotton and linen and how those things also come from agriculture as well. So exploring that side of things, I think I might lean into that a little bit … but we’ll have to see.” 

In the meantime, she will spend the next year visiting fairs across Pennsylvania promoting agriculture. Heading into fair season after she finishes her first year in college, Morrissey has a tentative game plan, even if it is a little ambitious. 

“I think we’ll play it by ear, I don’t know for sure. I don’t know if 50 or 60 (fairs) is an ambitious goal. There were 65 girls that I met this past weekend and I would love to see them again over the summer at their fairs,” she said. “So I guess maybe 65 is my number right now just so I could go support all of them at their county fairs.” 

Morrissey noted that she made many new friends this past weekend, adding they all were worthy of wearing the state queen tiara and sash. 

“There were so many amazing girls that I had met that weekend that I truly thought were also so deserving of the title and to be in the top five (finalists) as well. So I was very shocked when they announced my name for the top five,” Morrissey said. “We went up, they dismissed us to a room and then we came back in and they asked us an impromptu question. And our impromptu question was, ‘If you knew your next social media post was going to go viral, what would you post about?’”

As might be expected, Morrissey would like to see the agricultural education of the general public go viral. 

“Actually, the first thing I thought of was the people that I was talking about earlier that I’ve met here in Savannah that don’t know anything about agriculture. I just thought, I want to post about agriculture because so many people don’t know about agriculture,” she said. “So that they can know where their food comes from, how it impacts them, because it is really important, and it is really sad how many people don’t know that.” 

Morrissey has had a deep love for the local fair scene as long as she can remember. She is the Lebanon Area Fair Queen until the next fair, which runs July 25 to Aug. 1 at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center & Fairgrounds in North Cornwall Township.

“I have been involved with the Lebanon Area Fair since I was, I mean, I’ve been going since I was born, probably. It’s just such a big part of our community,” she said. “When I was younger and growing up, I just thought it was really cool to be the fair queen. I’m not sure I really understood what it meant to be the fair queen until maybe a few years ago … but I decided to run because I really wanted to make a difference.”

That difference includes sharing the amazing stories of her friends who live on farms and work the land with their parents.

“I wanted to grow my skills as a leader and as a public speaker (as fair queen), but also kind of immerse myself in the agricultural community because I have a lot of friends who live on farms, who are farmers, and I feel like they don’t get a lot of recognition,” Morrissey said. “Even though I personally am not a farmer myself … I recognize all of their hard work and all that they do, and so it just seemed like an amazing opportunity to be able to run for something that kind of stood for that.”

Fresh off her win at the 2025 Lebanon Area Fair, Morrissey was busy for the rest of the week, handing out ribbons to livestock exhibitors and conducting a quiz for kids on Community Night. She said she really enjoyed one event in particular.

“I wasn’t sure I was super qualified to judge a mullet contest, but I did have a lot of fun doing it. So that was pretty exciting,” she said.

Morrissey has also been out in the community representing the local fair.

“But since the fair was over, we’ve had, I think, two parades we’ve been in, the Myerstown Parade and the Lebanon Holiday Parade. And those were both very cool experiences,” she said. “I also went to Londonderry Village, to their memory care unit.”

That was, she said, a learning and sharing experience.

“I went with bunnies and talked to some of the residents there, which was really special. My great-grandpa was in a memory care unit a few years ago. And so it was very special to go in and talk to some of the people about agriculture. Some of them had actually grown up on farms, so it was cool to talk to them about that,” she said. “That’s probably one of my favorite things I’ve done so far as the fair queen.” 

Morrissey told LebTown there are a few people who have helped her achieve the honor of being state fair queen, such as her parents, who demonstrated their hard work ethic, and several others who played an integral role in her development. 

“My mom actually is the one who signed me up for 4-H when I showed an interest in sewing, when I was about the age of 7 and before that. So without her, I probably wouldn’t be here,” she said. Her coordinators at the Lebanon Area Fair, Andrea Harrell and Ashley Bishop, “both have dedicated so much time to helping me get to this point,” she added.

Morrissey also cited her 4-H Friends’ leader, Linda Siegel, “who has played a huge role in my life as far as teaching me about leadership.” She credited the Siegel family for teaching her about agriculture so she could see “firsthand how hard Linda and her family work to keep their farm going.”

Morrissey will receive scholarships from the Pennsylvania State Association of County Fairs at the end of her reign next January. She was crowned at the recent ceremony by outgoing state fair queen alternate Brooke Beamesderfer, an Annville resident and 2024 Lebanon Area Fair Queen.