Charlene Beckett is Cattle Festival’s Citizen of the Year

Charlene Beckett has been named the 2018 Louisiana Cattle Festival Citizen of the Year.
The Cattle Festival will be held Oct. 11-14 in Abbeville.
Beckett will be among those who will be recognized at the 2018 Louisiana Cattle Festival Honoree Banquet & Social that will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 10, at Magdalen Place. The event begins at 6 p.m.
Charlene Beckett was born and raised in the small community of Meaux, Louisiana and has resided in Abbeville for the last 41 years. She is married to Charlie Beckett, Jr. They have three children, Erica, Alexander, and Laura. Like most, their family has grown and now includes daughter-in-law, Stephanie, son-in-law, James, and five wonderful grandchildren: Alexander and Stephanie’s children Aidan, Chase, and Evan and Laura and James’ children Beckett and Bella Brantley.
Charlene attended Mt. Carmel Elementary and Mt. Carmel High School, hers being the last class to graduate from the high school in 1967. After graduation she attended St. Mary’s Dominican College in New Orleans. A little more than a year later Charlene was married and broadening her horizons as she traveled with Charlie to military postings from California to Washington, D.C. and points in between. In 1976, with military life behind them, they settled in to Abbeville where their focus shifted to raising their children and making Abbeville their home.
In 1996, Charlene accepted the position of Main Street Manager for the City of Abbeville. She has served in that post for the last 22 years. Her tenure with the City has seen her through two mayoral administrations six years with former Mayor Brady Broussard and 16 years and counting with present Mayor Mark Piazza – and a steady yet fluid landscape of city council members.
As Main Street Manager, and in conjunction with other associations and groups, she has initiated and participates in many popular community activities and programs including, but not limited to: Sounds on the Square, The Christmas Stroll, the Daylily Festival and Garden Show, Keep Abbeville Beautiful, and the Sam Guarino Blacksmith Shop Museum. Meeting and interacting with Main Street Managers from across the state. Working closely with the Abbeville-Vermilion Chamber of Commerce and the Vermilion Tourist Commission in promoting the City of Abbeville and Vermilion Parish? Managing a diverse group of volunteers as she works to promote and implement the Main Street program’s concepts and goals? “It’s all in a day’s work”, says Charlene.
When asked about being named the 2018 Cattle Festival, Citizen of the Year, Charlene expressed her enthusiastic appreciation, saying, “It is truly an honor to be recognized in this way and to be allowed to participate in a tradition that has, for decades, honored our area’s cattle and farming communities.”