'World's Worst Farmer' scheduled for tribute

Baumgartner

Humorist Lewis Baumgartner, billed as "The World's Worst Farmer," is scheduled as the featured attraction of the Dyersburg Noon Rotary Club's annual Rural Urban Day on Thursday.

The event is scheduled for 12 p.m., noon, on Thursday at the Dyer County Fair-grounds Family Life Center.

Baumgartner continues a tradition of clean and hilarious comedy acts for the annual tribute to local agriculture, inaugurated by P.H. White and the late Jere Bradshaw in 1996.

Rotarians from the breakfast and noon clubs cook the sit-down meal, which is served by Three Oaks Middle School students.

The event regularly draws between 500 and 600 people.

Baumgartner, who farms land near rural Millersburg, Mo., began the humor circuit by speaking to local groups. The hobby gained the attention of several national farm magazines and increased the demand for his kind of humor.

Baumgartner has compiled his best magazine columns into a book, titled "World's Worst Farmer... From Ragweed Ranch in Cocklebur County."

Tickets are $6 each and available from any Dyersburg Rotary Club member.

Proceeds from the event help fund the club's community service projects.