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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Memphis-based National Cotton Ginners Association (NCGA) named its officers for 2021 during its recent virtual 2021 annual meeting.

The NCGA’s 2020 officers were re-elected to serve in 2021: president – Curtis Stewart, Spade, Texas; first vice president – George LaCour, Jr., Morganza, Louisiana; second vice president – Gene Seale, Pima, Arizona; third vice president – Richard Lindsey, Centre, Alabama; and chairman – Wes Morgan, New London. Harrison Ashley, Cordova, Tennessee, is NCGA’s executive vice president.

Since 2011, Stewart has served as general manager of Spade Cooperative Gin in Spade, Texas. Previously, he was the engineer for Chickasha Cotton Oil Company in Casa Grande, Arizona, before serving as president of Dumas Cotton Gin, LLC and principal broker for Diversified Land Management and Consulting, LLC in Dumas, Arkansas.

A 1998 graduate of the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) Cotton Leadership Program, Stewart is a past chairman the NCC’s Joint Industry Bale Packaging Committee and a past president of Southern Cotton Ginners. He earned a B.S. in Mechanized Agriculture from Texas A&M University in 1982 and a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from Texas Tech University.

Also announced at NCGA’s annual meeting was that David Blakemore, president of Blakemore Cotton & Grain in Campbell, Missouri, is the 2020 Horace Hayden National Cotton Ginner of the Year.

Jerry Scarborough, who co-founded Cherokee Fabrication, received the NCGA’s 2020-21 Charles C. Owen Distinguished Service Award.