About

Born and raised in New Orleans, Romney grew up as a YMCA gymnast and has enjoyed participating and watching this sport her entire life.  She went on to Springfield College in Massachusetts and participated as a NCAA gymnast.  Later, she taught gymnastics in her own gym, Gretna Gymnastics Center, just outside of New Orleans.

After graduating with a degree in Communications from Loyola University in New Orleans, Romney formed her own publishing company which has featured three successful award-winning publications for almost 30 years – two are international trade journals and one was a consumer magazine. One of these was Sugar Journal which she purchased from her predecessor, Mr. Bill Flannagan in 1991. The second trade journal was originally named Naval Stores Review and later changed its title to Pine Chemicals Review. It was recently sold to one of its subscribers although the journal is published out of Sugar Journal office. The consumer magazine, Louisiana Cookin’, was launched by her and her husband, Charley Richard, in 1997. They later sold the magazine to a larger publishing company and it continues to thrive today. During this time, Romney has served as Publisher, Editor, ad-sales representative and even written for several of her publications. Over the years, Sugar Journal’s participation in the international sugar industry has led her to be well recognized by many advertisers, scientists and industry personnel around the world.

Romney is also active in the New Orleans arts community, singing with the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans for the last 30 years, where she recently served as board president. Singing is one of her passions as for the last 30+ years, she has sung with this chorus in places such as Florence, Italy and New York’s Carnegie Hall. With her love of jazz singing, she has enjoyed singing with Delgado Community College’s Jazz Band in Jazz Fest, graduations and festivals.

She published her memoir in 2019, Orchid After the Storm, a woman’s story of personal success overcoming corruption and adversity. This book is available on this website.

In 2022, her project was to record compositions from her favorite Brazilian composer, Antiono Carlos Jobim, as she has been singing his music all her life. After retiring, her vocal teacher, Steven Edwards, encouraged her to record Jobim’s songs as her love for this composer’s work was evident. This CD, along with her great-grandfather, William J. McCoy’s compositions, are available on this website.

Being a loving mother to her two daughters, she enjoys being a grandmother to their three boys along with Charley’s three sons and their five grandchildren.