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Rhonda “Tink” Albright and Richard Taffner of Gassville have been named the 2026 Baxter County Farm Family of the Year, recognition for one of the area’s most active community volunteers and longtime public servants.
Albright is a familiar name in Baxter County civic life. She served 10 years as a Justice of the Peace on the Baxter County Quorum Court, the longest tenure of any member of the court at the time of her departure in 2024.
She continues to serve on the Cotter/Gassville Rural Fire Protection District Board, where she was confirmed by the Quorum Court in 2025. She is also active in the Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society and serves as a contact for the society’s monthly programs.
Albright and her family have been steady donors to community causes through the Albright Family Charitable Fund. The fund contributed $10,000 to the Baxter County Library Foundation’s Library Hill Trail Project, a walking and biking path that will connect the Donald W. Reynolds Library to surrounding neighborhoods.
She has also championed early literacy through her support of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Baxter County, which provides free books to children.
The Farm Family of the Year recognition is part of the statewide Arkansas Farm Family of the Year program, which has honored farm families since 1947. Selection criteria include efficiency of production, conservation of energy and resources, leadership in agricultural and community affairs, home and farm improvement, and home and farm management.
Judges will visit county recipients to determine eight District Farm Families of the Year, which will be announced June 9. The state Farm Family of the Year will be announced in December at a luncheon and will represent Arkansas at the Southeastern Expo Farmer of the Year event in Georgia.
Three Arkansas families have won Southeast Farmer of the Year. Brian and Nan Kirksey of Clark County won in 2008, Wildy Family Farms of Mississippi County in 2016 and the Cobb, Lyerly and Owen Family/Partnership of Craighead County in 2023.
Marion County’s 2026 Farm Family of the Year is Devin and Christie Deislinger of Flippin. Other regional recipients include Tim Crunkleton of Everton in Boone County, Russell Goodman Family of St. Joe in Searcy County, Shane and Patsy McElroy of Timbo in Stone County, Nathan and Courtney Sanders of Franklin in Izard County, Ben and Sarah Leslie of Salem in Fulton County, Robert and Bentley Brockway of Cave City in Sharp County and Mark and Becky Cornett of Locust Grove in Independence County.
The Arkansas Farm Family of the Year program is sponsored by Arkansas Farm Bureau, Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas and Farm Credit Associations of Arkansas. Additional support is provided by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, the Arkansas Department of Career Education, the Arkansas Press Association, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Rural Development.
