Every year, Fay and Harry gather their family and friends together to watch the Krewe of Des Allemands parade as it passes by their home.
“It’s a big gathering,” Fay said. “We have our three boys, and all the in-laws come over. We have a good time.”
This year, they’ll be in the parade as it rolls through Des Allemands on Sunday, March 2. The Krewe of Des Allemands crowned Harry and Fay as King and Queen in the crowning ceremony on Feb. 1.
When they put the crown on Fay’s head, she thought about her sister, Deborah Tregle, who passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack in 2018. Tregle, a member of the Des Allemands Carnival Krewe Committee, helped restart the parade in 1995.
“I’ll be honest with you, it was touching for me,” Fay said. “We were very, very close.”
Fay said the parade means a lot to her and Harry.
“We wish more people would participate in it,” Fay said. “It means a lot because our grandchildren and great-grandchildren enjoy it. That’s the only parade we go to.”
Harry and Fay have been married for 61 years. They were introduced to each other by a mutual friend after Harry saw Fay at the bus stop and said, “I’m going to marry that girl.” They married on Jan. 11, 1964, when Harry was 22 and Fay was 19. They purchased their home in Des Allemands in 1968.
“We wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” Fay said.
Harry and Fay have volunteered at St. Gertrude Catholic Church and the Des Allemands Catfish Festival. Harry called bingo on bingo nights at St. Gertrude and Fay worked in the kitchen at the church. For 37 years, Harry worked at Occidental Chemical Company in Luling.
Before they started the tradition of gathering their three sons, six grandchildren, and three great grandchildren at their home for the parade, Fay and Harry watched the parade every year as it passed by Fay’s childhood home. Fay remembers that the veteran group, the American Legion, would march with the United State flag at the start of the parade.
“We’ve been watching for a long time,” Fay said. “We’re excited to be King and Queen. We’re hoping to have a good time.”
