“They were an obvious choice,” Mayor Pro Tem Sheri Campbell said of the decision to name Calvin and Betty Cognevich as Abita Springs’ Citizens of the Year.

The town’s park committee made the decision, but Campbell said it was a unanimous decision and was “very easy for us to make.”

Calvin and Betty Cognevich have a hand in almost all of the goings on in the small town.

Calvin and Betty Cognevich of Abita Springs were both named Abita Springs’ Citizens of the Year. (Staff Photo by Suzanne Le Breton)

Calvin served for 16 years on the Town Council.

He said he had recently retired from his work at Avondale Shipyard, and his friend Lee Vinti was running for mayor. Vinti talked him into running for a seat on the council so they could serve together.

“I got elected and he didn’t,” Calvin said with a chuckle.

Betty said she feels she would not be as active had she not met Calvin.

Both widowed, the two met each other while volunteering with the local VFW Post.

Calvin was a member of the post, and Betty was a member of the auxiliary. They are both still members.

Calvin served two years in the U.S. Navy from 1944-1946.

“I joined the day the U.S. invaded Normandy,” he stated proudly.

Betty’s first husband was in the military so she was involved with the VFW through him prior to his death.

They are also both very active in St. Jane de Chantal Church, where Calvin is a member of the Men’s Club and the Knights of Columbus, and Betty is a member of the auxiliary.

She is also in charge of bereavement for the church, a member of the hospitality committee and the Altar Society.

Calvin was a member of the choir until the choir disbanded and until recently he served on the finance committee.

Together they count the collections every two weeks.

During Lent they help work the fish fry fundraisers. Calvin collects the money and works the door, and Betty helps with the desserts.

They are members of the Senior Citizens group in Abita Springs, and Betty is a secretary in the Ladies Progressive Club.

The Ladies Progressive Club and the VFW combine to make up the Abita Civic Organization, which puts on the Friday night bingos in Town Hall.

Of course Betty and Calvin volunteer at those bingos as well.

Betty is also vice chairman of the museum committee, and she is in charge of the concessions for the town’s Cajun dances.

She is also the Queen Mother of the Red Hatted Belles of Abita.

“There is something going on all the time,” Betty said, adding that she couldn’t imagine just sitting around and not pitching in wherever she is needed.

“The alternative would be to sit in a rocking chair or watch TV, and I don’t like to do those things,” she said.

“Betty and I can’t say no,” Calvin added.

“Everyone is so nice,” Betty said. “I just want to pitch in and help.”

“That’s what makes Abita Springs so special; people of this town are very helpful and friendly,” Calvin added.

He grew up in Buras. He has three children, two grandchildren and six great grandchildren. He started coming to Abita with his first wife in the late 1940s. In 1962, they moved here. She passed away in 1997, and he met Betty in 1998. They married the next year.

Betty is originally from Texas. She worked for Mutual of New York in Memphis, Tenn. for many years before moving to the St. Tammany area with her first husband. She moved to Abita Springs when she married Calvin.

When not volunteering their time, Calvin and Betty enjoy reading and watching the Saints and LSU Tigers play football.

They also enjoy traveling and have been to London, Paris, Hawaii, a cruise on the Rhine River and Alaska.

“We have had an interesting life since we’ve been together,” Betty said, which is ironic because before finding each other she said they “lived rather lonely lives.”

“If he wouldn’t have been involved with the Town Council, I probably wouldn’t met all of these great people,” she said. “All of this keeps us active and young.”

“We do have a good life,” Calvin added. “This is the happiest time of my life.”

But, Campbell said the residents of Abita Springs who meet Betty and Calvin Cognevich through all of these organizations are the lucky ones.

“Their love and commitment to the town of Abita Springs is evident in everything they do. They are our best volunteers,” she said. “They are there whenever we need them and they set a beautiful example to everyone else in the town.”

“We just love them.”

Betty Cognevich said the whole ordeal has been a “very humbling experience.”

She recalled the night her and Calvin got the news they would be honored.

“I was already in my nightgown and my robe,” she said with a laugh, “when we heard a knock on the door.”

It was three members of the park committee, Lynette Soules, Campbell and Jonathan Davis, excited and ready to share the news.

“We just couldn’t wait to tell them,” Campbell said.

Betty and Calvin Cognevich will be recognized as special honorees at the town’s Water Festival on Saturday.