Crowning glory

Over 50 girls have earned the title of Miss St. Charles Parish Festival

The 52nd Annual St. Charles Parish Festival Pageant took place on August 8, crowning the latest in a long line of Queens.

Chelsey Elizabeth Hymel of Montz was crowned Miss St. Charles Parish Festival. Hymel is a sophomore at Southeastern Louisiana University and was sponsored by State Senator Joel Chaisson II.

Hymel will go on to compete in the Louisiana Queen Sugar Pageant in New Iberia in September.

“There are 17 sugar-producing parishes so she’ll represent St. Charles Parish as one of those parishes,” said Doreen Landry, current pageant director.

In February Hymel will compete in the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals (LAFF) Queen of Queens Pageant against 90 other state girls.

“That’s a huge thing,” Landry said. “The good thing about LAFF is that if she were to win that prestigious title, she does not give up her title as St. Charles Festival Queen.”

Lynleigh Angelle’ Landry of Norco was the teen winner. Lynleigh is freshman at St. Charles Catholic High School and was sponsored by Becnel’s AC Services.

This year’s pageant took place at Destrehan High School and had three teen contestants and five miss contestants. The pageant has a long history of local and state winners that dates back to 1959. The pageant is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus Red Church Council No. 3634 each year.

Winners get both the bragging rights to the crown and scholarship money.

The pageant is a big production each year that many parishioners look forward to, and Landry says she hopes it always will be.

“It’s definitely part of St. Charles history and culture and something that we’re going to try keep moving forward 50 more years if we can,” Landry said. “Not only is it a beauty pageant, it’s beauty inward and outside. These girls have to have beauty, poise personality and public speaking skills because they do promote St. Charles Parish for one year.”

Ralph St. Amant, a Norco resident, was the pageant chairman and director from 1954 to 1995.

He said that the pageant is not only an important part of parish history, but also a great opportunity for local girls to get real-world experience.

“The pageant life is different in this regard: it gives young ladies a chance to be interviewed, which they’re going to be doing for the rest of their life if they go for a job interview. It gives them the ability to appear and speak in public, which they’re going to be doing,” St. Amant said. “And it also has a scholarship program which gives them the opportunity to get some money to further their education.”

He said the highlight of his career was when 1968 pageant winner Sandra LaBlanc was the first local queen to go on and win at the state level.

St. Amant said that the pageant is also a great way to publicize the parish.

“We need to spread the word about our parish,” he said. “This is a good way to do it because even if our parish queen or other representatives don’t win anything else…at least they go to many, many other festivals and pageants and parades, and other things across the state and give our parish the opportunity to say ‘This is the parish of plenty.’

“It really is a good advertising agent for our parish.”

Runner-up contestants in this year’s teen pageant were: Katie Pitts, a junior at DHS, and Kristen Latour, an 8th grade student at Albert Cammon Middle School. Runner-up contestants for the miss pageant were: Kayla Becnel, a senior at LSU, Andre Romero, a senior at DHS, Victoria Pellerin, a freshman at the University of New Orleans, and Jenna Mire, A junior at Destrehan High School.

Sweetheart Escorts were Brianna Andras, Ana Bourg, Riley Duffaut, Paris Duhe, Claire Girardot, Macoi Hollins, Noelle Kelley, Mallory Lloyd, Sarah Mire, Anna Moore, Zoe Naquin, Serena Poche and Bryleigh Sutherland.

Take a look back in time on pages 5B-7B of the Herald-Guide August 12 edition to see photos of past queens of the pageant.

Pictures were unavailable for 1995 Queen Shannon Fabre, 1994 Queen Jessica Pecoraro, 1992 Queen Tammy Roussel, 1991 Queen Tiffany Koeberl, 1990 Queen Samantha Cazalot, 1985 Queen Melissa Binet and 1978 Queen Monica Bergeron.