2026 Golden Onion Days Grand Marshals

 Linda Carter and Annette Draper are the 2026 Golden Onion Days Grand Marshals

PICTURED (left-right) are two benevolent Paysonians who share the title Grand Marshal this year: Linda Carter and Annette Draper.

Payson City honors two remarkable women this year as the Golden Onion Days Grand Marshals: Linda Mendenhall Carter and Annette Hone Draper. They will ride ahead of the grand parade — at 10 AM along Main Street — on Labor Day morning, September 7.

Community service has been a major part of Carter’s life. She served on the Payson City Council for eight years and was a member of the Phi Delta Cultus Club. She coached baseball and softball teams.

Carter worked alongside Helen Scott during the early years of Payson’s Scottish Festival, helping support what has become a beloved and successful community tradition. She was instrumental in bringing youth soccer to Payson City. And she dedicated over twenty years of service at Mountain View Hospital.

Draper, too, has been generous with her time in Payson. She was a member of the Phi Delta Cultus Club and spent countless summers coaching her daughters’ softball teams while running the ball park snack shack. She worked for many years as a librarian at Wilson Elementary School, encouraging a love of learning to countless children. She later worked at the Payson swimming pool and as a Pink Lady at Mountain View Hospital, compassionately caring to the needs of patients and their families.

These two ladies have made a lasting difference in Payson. Their friendship is a gift to the community and their generosity an example to all.