Sonny Hankins has seen a lot of cattle shows. His wife Melinda has tasted her share of canned tomatoes. And the pair has witnessed the spectacle that is the Baldwin County Fair almost every year since it began 62 years ago.

Sonny’s father, a Baldwin County farmer, was one of the founders of the fair, and Sonny took his place on the fair’s board of directors when his father died in 1957. Fifty-five years later, he and Melinda marvel that they’ve been fair managers for the past 10 years. 

“I used to walk to the fair with a group of youth from my community, and it was a very special event because people from other communities came to town,” said Melinda, who never thought she would be managing the fair.

Sonny and Melinda met at Robertsdale High School. When they were children, Baldwin County was completely different than what it is today, Sonny said.

“I tell all my friends and all the new people who move here that I’ve enjoyed the best of the best in Baldwin County,” Sonny said. “My dad was a founder of the local electric co-op here, and we saw it go from no electricity to what you see today. I saw it go from dirt roads to all the county roads being paved. I’ve seen it (the population) go from 25,000 to 150,000 in my time.”

During his childhood, there were no stock laws in the county, and cattle roamed free. There were no telephones, and agriculture was booming, he said.

“I’ve seen Baldwin County grow up,” Sonny said. “It’s sad, but I’m glad because they call it progress. It breaks my heart to ride over Baldwin County and see wonderful, beautiful farmland being covered in asphalt. It’s the nature of the beast in the place where we live, but it’s a sad day for me and my generation to see that.”

Along with watching the county grow, Sonny has seen the fair mature from its infancy in the 1950s. Much has changed, but the dedication of the volunteers, organizers and attendees to keep the fair going remains, he said.

“We’re the oldest county fair in the state,” Sonny said. “We’ve been through hurricanes, droughts, recessions, assassinations—you name it—we’ve never missed a fair. We always have a fair.”

Although the fair has become Sonny’s passion over the past decade, he has worn several different hats—he is a third generation farmer, has worked as a private contractor for FEMA since the late 1960s, was Gov. George Wallace’s executive assistant for south Alabama for four years and served on the Baldwin County Commission in the 1970s.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” Sonny said. “It’s been one heck of a ride.”

Melinda also has her share of life experiences. After owning a fabric store for many years, she went back to school and earned an education degree. She worked at Faulkner State Community College in student development until her retirement.

But Sonny and Melinda said their greatest accomplishment is helping the Baldwin County Coliseum become what it is today.

The building, finished in 2008, is located on Fairground Road in Robertsdale. It is classified to serve as a shelter for victims of natural disasters and is rated to withstand conditions of a category 5 hurricane. It can sustain wind gusts of up to 200 miles per hour and can house 3,200 people temporarily and 1,900 people long term.

Sonny was the director of the building committee in 2005, and he knew he wanted the building to serve as more than just a place to have the fair every year.

“I said, ‘There’s no way we need to build something and it not be a shelter,’” Sonny said. “And with my friends at FEMA and the Baldwin County Commission, we got the only grant like this that FEMA ever did, and we are so proud of it. The people in Baldwin County benefit from it.”

Having worked with FEMA for so many years, Sonny knew how to negotiate to get the $8 million grant to build the massive structure. But he said the coliseum would never have been built without the support and additional funding from the Baldwin County Commission and the Alabama Cattle and Fair Association at the time.

Melinda worked to make the building aesthetically pleasing and available for the community to use for events like church services, funerals, high school proms, career fairs, meetings, wedding receptions, class reunions and rodeos, she said.

“We wanted this building to be a place where the community feels like it’s their building—where they could come here and be comfortable and enjoy it,” she said. “It warms my heart to see people enjoying it, especially the children. That’s really my focus is that families can bring their children here, and they can play and be safe.”

The Hankins’ even managed to incorporate their alma mater’s school colors into the building.

“I’m so proud that we chose Robertsdale High School colors—Robertsdale maroon even into the brick—and part of that was saying, ‘This belongs to you. Take possession of it. We want it to be familiar,’” Melinda said.

Sonny isn’t sure when the couple will end up retiring from their fair manager duties, but he said the fair and the Baldwin County Coliseum will always remain a part of he and Melinda’s lives.

“I’m about at the end of my string with them—I’m fixing to move on, and someone else can take the building and the fair to a higher level,” Sonny said. “But we’re very loyal to it. We don’t want anything to happen to our county fair.”