The St. Denis Art League has announced Hayden Grace Sellers as Queen and John Ernest Ackel as King of the 58th Spring Festival Court. The Annual Presentation and Ball will be held Saturday, April 25, at the Natchitoches Events Center.
Sellers, a senior at Natchitoches Central High School, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wade Martel Stephens and the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Breedlove Jr. and Mr. and Mrs. John Mayher. She is active in school and community organizations, including BETA Club, Future Farmers of America, Chief Council and Activate Club. She has been on the Principal’s List throughout high school and was inducted into the National Honor Society as a junior.
Sellers is also a four-year member of the Texas High School Rodeo Association, where she qualified for the Texas State Finals in both barrel racing and pole bending. She plans to attend Louisiana Tech University to major in animal science with a pre-veterinary concentration.
A member of First United Methodist Church of Natchitoches, Sellers has also served as a Summer Dance committee member and as a Maid of the 2026 Mystic Krewe de St. Denis. She previously served as a herald in 2016, and her mother, Rachel Breedlove Stephens, reigned as Queen of the Spring Festival in 2003.
Ackel, a lifelong Natchitoches resident, will reign as King. He has been actively involved in numerous civic and community organizations, including the Natchitoches Area Chamber of Commerce, American Heart Association, and the Bank Administration Institute. He has also served with the St. Mary’s Catholic School Capital Campaign Committee, the Northwestern State University Athletic Advisory Council, and as alumnus advisor of finance for the university’s Theta Mu Chapter.
He is a past president of both the Natchitoches Area Jaycees and the Natchitoches Kiwanis Club, and currently serves as president of the Kiwanis Foundation of Natchitoches. Ackel remains an active member of the Natchitoches Rotary Club and Mystic Krewe de St. Denis.
A graduate of St. Mary’s High School and Northwestern State University, Ackel holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and is also a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking of the South at LSU. He serves as president and chief executive officer of City Bank and Trust Company and is a member of its board of directors. He was recently elected to the Louisiana Bankers Association Board of Directors as the Central Region representative.
Ackel and his wife, Donna Hill Ackel, have two daughters, two grandsons and one granddaughter. He is a member of the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, where he serves as a lector.
The Ackel family has a longstanding history with the Spring Festival. His daughter, Hillary Ackel Bodden, served as an usher and reigned as Queen in 2010, while his daughter, Madison Ackel Mullen, served as herald, usher and Lady of the Court in 2015.
