This weekend is Apple Day in Paintsville, Kentucky. Officially, it’s the Kentucky Apple Festival, but everyone calls it Apple Day.
It’s basically a county fair. There’s a carnival and a parade and a lot of food, like apple pie, caramel apples and apple butter. There aren’t really a lot of orchards in Johnson County, but there are a few, and every year, the farmer with the best apples is proclaimed the Apple King.
When I was 8 years old, my Great Uncle Cecil was Apple King because of his Minerva apples.
Cecil was Granny’s brother. He and Aunt Minerva never had kids, but people adopted them as surrogate grandparents. They lived in a log house they built themselves on a small farm up a hollow near a place called Meally.
They bickered a lot. Minerva was a little hard of hearing, and Cecil sort of mumbled. He’d say something, she wouldn’t understand him, so he’d say it louder and louder until she understood or accused him of yelling at her, but they loved each other deeply.
Cecil was kind of a hacker in the DIY-sense of the word. He loved taking things apart and seeing how they worked and trying to make them do things they weren’t meant to do. He tinkered with old radios and model trains, and he tinkered with his apple trees.
I don’t know a lot about horticulture, but he would take stems from one kind of apple tree and graft them onto another one, and after many years, he came up with a hybrid he called the Minerva apple.
Minerva apples were yellow and big and perfect — crisp, not mushy, and a little more sweet than tart. When he finally entered the Minerva apple in the Apple Day contest, the other farmers didn’t have a chance.
I don’t remember the last time I had a Minerva apple. As he and Minerva got older, Cecil let his orchard go, and, one year, there simply weren’t any more.
Minerva passed away in 1995, and Cecil died in 1999. I went to see him a few months before he died. He was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and watching CNN on the little TV in the corner. We were making small talk, and I asked how he came up with the Minerva apple.
He grinned but wouldn’t tell me, because, really, those apples were always just Minerva’s apples.
Todd Pack 
What a sweet little love story. I can’t think of many things more romantice than to have an apple variety created and named for you.
They were wonderful people, Amy.
Beautiful!
Thanks.
What a wonderful story. I guess the Minerva apple died with him.
The trees are still there, but they’re not in good shape. I don’t know whether they’re still producing fruit.
I agree with Amy, what a sweet, sweet story.
Thanks, skip!
Paintsville is near Pikeville, right? My parents were both from that area. Probably related to your Great Uncle Cecil.
The apple sounds very good – and a great love story, too.
Ask if they’re related to Jenny Wiley. If they’re related to Jenny Wiley, then they’re definitely related to me.
I can’t ask them, but I can ask around…I love Jenny Wiley State Park. Beautiful place, we’ve had several family reunions there.
I’m glad you don’t let Cecil go.
loved reading this xxjen
DEAR TODD Hi my name is Bradley Picklesimer, I am Aunt Minerva and Uncle Cecils nephew, I bought the log house and property in 2000, I was just home in Oct to get the house ready for winter , I live between LA and meally,, born in Lexington, the county agent has told me , I have the last orchard in Johnson County. Istill prune and take care of all his trees as well as the catfish pond and log home, I belive the Mnerva apple is still alive , and plan to do grafts of all the trees , as I am a gardner, and proud kentucky farmer , loved your artical and hope to meet one day ,UNCLE CECIL AND AUNT MINERVA ARE ALIVE AND WELL AT 170 BOAT GUNNEL RD MEALLY KENTUCKY, ONE HOLLER OVER FROM BUTCHER HOLLER LOVE ALWAYS BRADLEY HARRISON PICKLESIMER