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In 1968, the St. Louis Catholic Church held a Bazaar/Festival to celebrate the rice harvest. It was so successful; the idea was formed to make it a community celebration. Farmers from Winnie-Stowell, Liberty, Dayton, Anahuac, Orange, and Hamshire-Fannett areas gathered to discuss this event. Early in 1969, the group chartered a bus and traveled to Crowley, Louisiana to talk to the International Rice Festival Board of Directors. They returned all enthused about having their own celebration. By October 1969, they had obtained the Charter for the Texas Rice Festival, Inc. That was the beginning of a long relationship between several communities as they came together to celebrate the rice harvest so vital to the area. The original idea was to rotate the event between several cities: Liberty, Anahuac, Dayton, and Winnie. The first one to be held in Winnie.
Everything and everyone was on a volunteer basis. A Board of Directors was organized with George Bauer as the first Chairman of the Board. Plans were in the making for the First Annual Texas Rice Festival to be held on Broadway Street in downtown Winnie. The minutes of the first meeting reflect that a motion was made and passed to hold the event in Winnie every year instead of rotating as originally planned. On October 3, 1970, Jack Cravy presided over the first Rice Festival.
Many changes have taken place throughout the years. The first office of the Texas Rice Festival, Inc. was in the old Post Office Building that housed the office of Gordon Lewis, CPA, and the Chamber of Commerce office. Mr. Lewis was President of the Chamber of Commerce and Mrs. Johnny Wright was Secretary to Mr. Lewis and Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1969, she was approached by the organizers of the Texas Rice Festival to also serve as its first Secretary. After the first festival, the office was moved to the old Board Room of Gulf Coast Bank. There it remained until it moved to the County building across the street from Winnie Pharmacy (now Brookshire Bros.) In 1994, with the monetary contribution of Ferdinand and Edna Mae Leonards and the efforts of the Texas Rice Festival, the present-day office on LeBlanc Street and the Leonards Agricultural Museum were built.
