By: Bob Arnold
Over the years, Southwestern Mississippi has been a settling ground for Louisiana migrants heading north when opportunities presented themselves to leave the threat of storms and less affordable living costs.
In the process, they have gradually impacted the culture in their new home, with their religion and its values, the foods they favor, festivals that provided unique fun times in their old home and preferences for sports teams, among other things. In Mississippi, Louisiana Roman Catholics have blended with Southern Baptists, Louisiana gumbo and Cajun meals are now on the menu in restaurants, towns, increasingly, celebrate Louisiana-style Mardi Gras and Louisiana State University athletic teams have a fan base that roots along side Ole Miss and Mississippi State partisans.
In Copiah and Lincoln counties, small communities, like one that surrounds Lake Lincoln State Park and another near a Martinsville hunting camp, have grown up due to the influx of Lousisianans.
Ketti Breaux is one of those Louisiana immigrants.
In 2021, on the eve of Hurricane Ida’s wrath in Louisiana, Breaux and her husband Bernie settled in Copiah County’s Martinsville area near the hunting camp, where he follows his passion in retirement.
Born Ketti Babin in 1959, she grew up in Houma, Louisiana, and spent her work life and reared two sons there.
In the 1960s and 1970s before an oil boom made it a city, Houma was a rural community with unpaved rocky country roads and sugar cane crops cultivated by local farmers. In her childhood, Breaux enjoyed being a Girl Scout and becoming an accomplished swimmer, foregoing service as a life guard in her teen years to work instead in a small store, she recalls
Breaux attended elementary, junior high and high school in Houma. After receiving her diploma from Terrebonne High School in 1977, she studied accounting at Nicholls State University at Thibodaux, Louisiana, and embarked on a career encompassing 31 years with state agencies after graduating in 1981.
She started her professional work life with the City of Houma as an accountant and then joined the State of Louisiana Department of Revenue and Taxation before becoming Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in the State Hospital System with Chabert Medical Center. After serving as CFO at Fletcher Technical Community College, she returned to Louisiana state agencies, where she completed her career.
Breaux met her husband, a workers compensation insurance claims adjuster before his retirement, at Nicholls State University. They have two sons – Justin, 40, who works with Proctor & Gamble in forklift operations at Alexandria, Louisiana, and Jared, 37, who works with Louisiana fire departments at Houma and Folsom. Between their sons, they also have five granddaughters, twins, age 18, and three others, 12, 16 and 15.
While pursuing her career and rearing her sons, Breaux also found time – “one night class a semester” – to renew her studies at Nicholls State University and earn a Masters of Business Administration degree.
In retirement, Breaux and her husband considered going elsewhere, but not very long.
“Mississippi was the right place,” she affirms. “My husband hunted deer in the Wesson-Hazlehurst area and had insurance clients in Mississippi. So when an old house on 27 acres at Martinsville became available, we didn’t hesitate. Since coming here, we’ve discovered a community of fellow Louisianans – a man in my high school graduating class with whom I had lost contact and friends of friends back in Houma.”
What are your hobbies?
In Louisiana, gardening was a passion. I was a Master Gardener and member of a the local garden club. My activities have expanded in Mississippi. Here I am active in the Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR), work out at the gym, practice chair yoga and take golf and line dancing lessons.
My husband does a lot of traveling. We go back and forth at least once a month to Louisiana to visit family and see our grandchildren in their band and sport functions. My husband will soon travel to Africa. I travelled with friends to Ireland, and am planning a trip with friends to Amish country near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Together, my husband and I went on a Panama Canal bus/river tour, fishing off a catamaran. We visited Paris, with a river tour to Normandy and Omaha Beach. Often our trips allow hunting time for my husband. We travelled to the Grand Canyon and Yellow. We are rescheduling a trip to the Canadian Rockies cancelled because of a wildfire. We’re looking forward to a trip that will encompass New Zealand and Australia. There are also the local and region travels offered by ILR.
Are you a reader?
My reading is eclectic. I am currently reading Duck Dynasty. I enjoy love stories and mysteries and follow daily devotionals.
How about music?
Again, I am eclectic. At the gym, I have even gotten into rap to accompany exercises. I like country music, too. I am listener. I don’t sing or play an instrument.
Do you go to the theater or movies?
In Houma, I attended La Petite Theater – the town’s little theater. I watch television, but have no favorite shows.
If you won a lot of money in the lottery, how would you spend it?
I would use if for travel and donate it to people in need, particularly those who need help for cancer treatments. St. Jude Hospital is a favorite charity.
How would you change the world?
People need to get along with each other – to live in peace and harmony.
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