PARIS, Ky. – Gayle Benson grieves. She always will.



She grabs a box of tissues from an end table in one of the sitting rooms inside the main house at Benson Farm at Greenwood Lodge on an overcast Friday morning, knowing she’ll eventually need them when describing the “big, beautiful blue eyes” of her late husband, former Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson.



“You know, Larry, the most overwhelming thing for me in my life was his death,” Gayle said. “Everything after that was just what it was.”



Gayle became the head of the Benson business empire when Tom died March 15, 2018, a stark shift in Tom’s original succession plan. Around Christmas 2014, Tom publicly declared that all of his estate, including the Saints and the Pelicans, be left solely to Gayle, eliminating his daughter, Renee, and grandchildren, Rita and Ryan LeBlanc, from having any control in the business assets.



Tom and Gayle eventually...