By David Vitrano
L’Observateur

RESERVE – Amid a flurry of glittery snowflakes and white, fluffy trees, Madaline King was crowned the 2012 Miss Andouille Queen at St. John Theatre Saturday night while Heather Roussel earned the teen crown.

“It was obviously pretty amazing,” said 19-year-old King, a LaPlace native and graduate of East St. John High. “I’ve always wanted to be Miss Andouille since I was little.”

Although the parish scrapped plans for this year’s Andouille Festival because of Hurricane Isaac, pageant organizer Dana Milioto said; “It was decided to proceed with the Andouille Pageant in an effort to sustain the relationships that have been established over the years with other fairs and festivals throughout the state. It takes years and a lot of work to build these relationships and receive invitations to various events such as festival pageants, festivities and coronation balls. We did not want the Andouille Festival to lose its relationships by not crowning a new queen to represent St. John Parish and travel across the state. It is also a great opportunity for the newly crowned queens to notify others that St. John Parish is moving forward after Hurricane Isaac. Not to mention, the pageant provided a night for residents to get out of the house and enjoy something positive.”

King said she had already decided to compete in this year’s pageant before Isaac struck, so the lack of an Andouille Festival did not discourage her.

“When you buy a dress like that,” King said, “there’s no returning.”

Besides, she and her teen counterpart will still get to reign over the 2013 festival along with next year’s queens. That’s fortunate for King, who said that is one of the things she is most looking forward to over the next year. But she is also looking forward to being part of the recovery process in St. John the Baptist Parish.

“That made me want to be Miss Andouille even more,” she said. “I feel like its my duty to help other people in the parish who were less fortunate than my family was.”

King is the daughter of Jason and Valerie King of LaPlace. She is a student at LSU.

Teen Andouille Queen Roussel is the 15-year-old daughter of Roger and Lori Roussel of LaPlace. She is a sophomore at St. Charles Catholic High School.

The “Winter Wonderland” theme of the evening took advantage of the Isaac-affected timeframe as the entertainment included numerous Christmas-themed songs. Additionally, the 2011 queens, Courtney Keller and Saige Brady, performed a particularly moving dance tribute to the St. John Parish deputies who were killed and wounded on Aug. 16.

According to Milioto, the pageant is scheduled to return to its regular October date in 2013.

A full list of the evening’s winners follows:

Teen Andouille Results

• Photogenic Award – Madison Stein

• People’s Choice Award – Madison Stein

• Interview Fashion Award – Madison Stein

• Fashion Award – Heather Roussel

• Congeniality Award – Cobi Smith

• Third Runner Up – Cobi Smith

• Second Runner Up – Jayci Cambre

• First Runner Up – Madison Stein

• Queen – Heather Roussel

 

Miss Andouille Results

• Photogenic Award – Madaline King

• People’s Choice Award – Shelby Clement

• Interview Fashion Award – Shelby Clement

• Fashion Award – Madaline King

• Congeniality Award – Lacey Lombardo

• Third Runner Up – Lacey Lombardo

• Second Runner Up – Shelby Clement

• First Runner Up – Ariel Amedee

• Queen – Madaline King