2024 Gumbo Fest Royalty
Kelly Boudreaux
2024 Gumbo Queen
The Chackbay Volunteer Fire Department is proud to announce the 2024 Louisiana Gumbo Festival Queen Mrs. Kelly Usey Boudreaux.
Kelly was born and raised in the community Choupic. She has been married to Richard Boudreaux for the past 12 years and still resides in Choupic. Kelly was introduced to volunteering at the Gumbo Festival after her brother Chad Usey joined the Chackbay Fire Department. She was 16 when she started volunteering in the hamburger stand. She became hooked instantly on volunteering and has continued to return each year. She has worked in numerous capacities throughout the years with the festival, like helping in the auction stand, ticket booth and gumbo kitchen. In 2003 after helping with the festival for a few years, she became an active member of the Chackbay Fire Department and Rescue Squad. Kelly said she loves how the gumbo festival brings the community together each and every year. Kelly’s father Mike Usey is also an active member of the fire department and he helped build the current fairgrounds and served as the festival’s 2023 Grand Marshal. Kelly’s mother Sandy Usey also volunteers for the festival, baking numerous delicious cakes and other sweets all weekend long, that are sold in the festival’s sweet stand. As you can see she is from a family, who is accustomed to volunteering for the betterment of their community.
At this time we want to THANK Mrs. Kelly for all the years she has devoted to the festival, and may she enjoy her reign as the 2024 Louisiana Gumbo Festival Queen!
Ben Benoit
2024 Gumbo King
The Chackbay Volunteer Fire Department is happy to announce the 2024 Louisiana Gumbo Festival King Mr. Ben Benoit.
Ben has been a resident of Chackbay for 14 years. His family consists of his wife Lindsey Morvant Benoit and their 2 young children Brennon (10) and Caroline (5).
Ben started as a firefighter with the Thibodaux Volunteer Fire Department at the age of 18. He has been a member of the Chackbay Volunteer Fire Department for 6 years, where he currently serves as Captain and is also a member for Chackbay Volunteer Fire Department Board of Directors. He is active within the department and is eager to respond to any emergency within the community.
Ben, says it is truly an honor to be chosen as 2024 Gumbo King and he hopes to see everyone there, having a great time!!
Billy Lawson
2024 Grand Marshall
Mr. Lawson received his B.S. in Biological Engineering from LSU in 1999. After working in product safety and tractor product engineering, he began a career in marketing with responsibility for over 40 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and the French Caribbean. From 2006-2016, he worked as Director- Sugar and Cotton Harvesting for Case IH as well as overseeing some of the company’s largest national accounts in North America. He was instrumental in creating a new product development group in Iowa, refocused the brand’s efforts on sugarcane development in India, and ensured that the current market needs were met with the existing Brazil product development team.
He has been the President and CEO of Range since 2017. During that time, the company has over doubled under his leadership and is a leading player in the agricultural equipment marketplace in Louisiana. He has overseen Range’s entrance into the ag. tech. world, with a staff dedicated to emerging technologies such as aerial spray drone application.
Currently a member of Fletcher Technical Community College’s Foundation Board; Mr. Lawson has been
the LA State Section Chair, a Society Trustee, a Foundation Trustee, and was named Louisiana Section Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Additionally, he was honored as one of LSU’s Rising Stars Under 40 in 2010 by the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. He holds one patent and is listed as a co-inventor on another. He most recently graduated from Leadership Lafourche in 2023, a program designed to develop business leaders in our community.
He lives in Mathews, LA with his wife Louise and their sons, Grady and Sam. In his free time, he enjoys saltwater fishing, hunting, and metal fabrication.