This year’s King Cotton is Dan Fromme, Ph.D. and state specialist in cotton, corn, and grain sorghum with the LSU AgCenter. From his childhood up to his current profession, cotton has always been a part of his life.
Fromme grew up on a cotton farm near Sinton, Texas, on the Texas Gulf Coast. He received his B.S. in crops from Texas Tech University in 1979, his Masters. in Ag. Education from Texas State in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Texas A&M University in 2007. He works at the Dean Lee Research and Extension Center located near Alexandria.
Fromme is married to his wife, Dee, and they are members of Calvary Baptist Church, located in Alexandria. He enjoys fly fishing for rainbow and brown trout in Arkansas and Colorado.
Fromme is no stranger to the Cotton Festival. In the past, he judged the queen’s contest in 2017. “I was impressed with the many years of the Cotton Festival tradition and how everyone was so enthusiastic and so very friendly,” he said. “The festival was very well organized and you could tell there was a lot of pride in the people who were coordinating the activities.”
When asked what it means to him to be named King Cotton, Fromme said, “Cotton has been a big part of my life for many years. This award is just the icing on the cake after growing up on a cotton farm and working in cotton professionally during the past 36 years in Texas and Louisiana. There have not been too many days that I have not thought about growing cotton which makes me so very appreciative of being part of the 2019 Cotton Festival.”
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: NANCY DUPLECHAIN Associate Editor