St. Martinville – The Rotary Club of St. Martinville will stage its 74th annual Mardi Gras Ball this Saturday, Feb. 15, at the Cade Community Center.
The theme of this year’s ball will be A Night with Elvis and His Friends.
Rotarian Richard Lanthier will reign as King Rotary LXXIV along with Queen Rotary Anne LXXIV Cassidy Oberleitner.
Raised on a rice farm in Mamou, Lanthier began a career in the oil drilling industry in 1976. After an extensive business involvement in Houston, Texas, he and his wife Lisa relocated to St. Martinville in 2013, returning to life in a small town.
The headquarters of his drilling fluid consulting firm, Outsource Fluid Solutions, is now in St. Martinville and conducts operations in four states.
He and his wife recently purchased two Main Street properties with plans to restore them as offices and a drilling fluid teaching center.
Taught to cook at an early age by his Cajun mother, he has formed Jamakin Me Cajun to market seasonings and curing kits for bacon, sausage and smoked meats in addition to creating instructional videos with St. Martinville’s unique history as a backdrop.
In addition to his Rotary Club activities, Lanthier is also a member of the American Association of Drilling Engineers, working with two universities to provide drilling fluid knowledge to engineering students.
The daughter of Melinda Granger-Oberleitner and Terry Oberleitner, Queen Cassidy is originally from Breaux Bridge. She is a 2016 graduate of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, and is a senior at Tulane University in New Orleans studying Communications with minors in Music and French.
After her graduation in May she hopes to pursue a career in music.
