A life worth crowing about
Aldon Sayre worked and volunteered at the fair for over 80 years, from collecting $1 admission in the 1930s, to eventually becoming president, and the voice behind the iconic rooster crow.
| 14 Jul 2025 | 02:52
Sayre giving the rooster crow in 2019. Photos provided.
Sayre participating in the fair’s chopping contest in 1947. He won the contest numerous times.
The Sussex County Farm & Horse Show Association, overseer of the Fairgrounds, lost a valued and venerable member this year: Aldon Sayre passed away in February at 103 years old.
Sayre is best known by fairgoers as the voice of the iconic “rooster crow” that marks the opening of the fair. It’s a tradition that has been around since the 1940s; Jules Marron and Warren Welsh held the official “crow master” position before Sayre was appointed in 2011. He ruled the roost up until 2022 at age 101.
But Sayre’s work with the fair goes much further back. He first became involved as a teenager working for the Branchville Riding Club — the fair’s predecessor — in 1938. He started volunteering with a group friends the following year. His duties included collecting $1 per vehicle to park.
Sayre continued to volunteer until Pearl Harbor occurred in 1941, and he enlisted in the Navy.
After his service, he returned to volunteering, serving as chair of the fair’s Concessions and Entertainment Divisions from 1950-1975.
Sayre was named president of the Farm and Horse Show in 1976, when the fair moved to permanent grounds in Augusta. He put up 26 acres of his own land as collateral to secure the loan for the new grounds.
In a 2022 interview for the newspaper’s Fair Guide, Sayre said: “One of my favorite memories is when we moved to the new fairgrounds, and we held a huge parade from Route 206, all the way to the fairgrounds ... It was a great day.”
Under Sayre’s direction, the fairgrounds, which started with one permanent building, grew and built new facilities to host the fair’s many shows and attractions. In addition to helping raise money for the fairgrounds, Sayre himself also made numerous donations, including funds to install box stalls in the barns and pour the first cement floor in the Richards Building.
Sayre served as president until 1988. Afterward, he remained an active volunteer through 2022, attending board meetings, helping out wherever he could and, of course, doing the rooster crow.
At this year’s fair, Sayre will be remembered when his son, Brian, gives the official crow.
The former Park Road that spans the fairgrounds now bears his name as Aldon Sayre Drive — a lasting tribute to his life’s work and enduring legacy.