GHOST CITY - Key Persons
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- Gettysburg Location Manager
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- General Personnel Manager
Christophe Glapion died in June of 1855, after being Marie Laveau's common-law husband and devoted father to their children for almost thirty years. There is no evidence of Marie ever taking up with another man after Glapion's death. One can only assume she knew it would be impossible to replace a love so big.
There are stories out there that say Marie started having babies with Glapion immediately and that they had 15 children over the course of 20 years. However, what is actually recorded is that they had seven children from 1827 - 1839. Three of these children died in infancy. Marie Philomene Glapion, born a "free quadroon" in 1836, lived the longest of the children. She would eventually be who many assumed the infamous Marie II.
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- General Operations Manager
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- Retail Operations Manager
John Kendall, a local writer in the early twentieth century and a self-professed expert on Marie Laveau, wrote, "After dark, you might see carriages roll up to Marie's door, and veiled ladies, elegantly attired, descend and hurry in to buy what the old witch had for sale. An arrant fraud, no doubt, but money poured into her lap down to the last day of her evil life." Mr. Kendall was not a fan of Ms. Laveau; perhaps he was one of many that thought Voodoo was part of the dark arts, which is unfortunate. The core value of New Orleans Voodoo is protection.
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- Payroll and Benefits Manager
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- Apparel Design and Production
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- the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans
- Wife and Mother
Marie Laveau was a free person of color living in the most colorful city in the United States, New Orleans. An article in The New Orleans Times Picayune, April 1886, adoringly remembered Marie Laveau, as "gifted with beauty and intelligence, she ruled her own race, and made captive of many of the other." A Creole woman with her own set of rules and strong beliefs who was surrounded by the political and religious influence of wealthy white men. Marie Laveau was a trailblazer for all women, her strong convictions and loyal confidentiality have kept her a mysterious legend for centuries.
Marie Laveau was the first born free in her family. It is said that Marie's great-grandmother came to New Orleans as a slave from West Africa in the mid-1700s. Her grandmother, Catherine, was purchased by a free woman of color. Catherine was eventually able to buy her freedom and build her small home in the French Quarter, where Marie Laveau would live and become the legendary Voodoo Queen of America.
On August 4, 1819, a young Marie Laveau married Jacques Paris, a free person of color from Haiti, at St. Louis Cathedral. Her father, who never married her mother but signed documents declaring to be Marie's father, stood at her wedding and signed the marriage contract on her behalf on July 27, 1819. Her wedding gift from her father was property that he owned on Love Street (now North Rampart). But documents show that by 1822 Marie and Jacques were living on Dauphine Street between Dumaine and St Philip. The city directory lists Jacques as a cabinet maker.
Most researchers say that Marie and Jacque did not have any children, however, Baptismal records from St. Louis Cathedral show entries for two daughters. Marie Angelie Paris baptized in 1823 and Felicite Paris baptized in 1824 are both listed as the daughters of Marie Laveau and Jacques Paris. Felicite's records state that she was seven years old at the time of her baptism, which would mean that she was born in 1817, two years before Marie and Jacque's marriage. Unfortunately, the records on Marie Angelie and Felicite stop there.
The mysteries that surround Marie Laveau started early in her life. The disappearance of her first two daughters is similar to the disappearance of Jacque Paris. There is no documentation of his death, though the baptismal record of Felicite declared him to be deceased. What we do know for certain is that Marie called herself "the Widow Paris" for the remaining years of her life.
In around 1826, Marie found love again with Louis Christophe Dumensnil de Glapion. Glapion came from a prominent New Orleans family, a wealthy white gentleman that would spend his last thirty years in a common law marriage with Marie Laveau - interracial couples were common in New Orleans, but forbidden to marry by law.
Catherine, Marie's grandmother passed away in 1831. A creditor surfaced and claimed that Catherine was indebted her home and an additional lump sum. Her cottage on St. Ann, that Marie had grown up in, was put up for auction. Glapion came to the rescue and purchased her childhood home. The Creole cottage on St. Ann would continue to be the home of Marie Laveau, Christophe Glapion, and their family until the end of the 19th century.
Marie Laveau attended daily mass well into her old age and visited prisoners trying to convince them to repent their sins for salvation. Surely the folks in the French Quarter saw her continue with her routines over the decades. But as we now know, the gossip and embellishments that surrounded her life were in abundance.
The one common thread in most of the stories about Marie II is that she was a bit more "wicked" than her mother. She was a proud woman who carried herself confidently and was by all definitions, an entrepreneur. Marie II is the Laveau that reportedly was the hairdresser to New Orleans' affluent white women, and she used their secrets to concoct money making schemes disguised as supernatural powers, and always kept her eye on the prize. Or so they say.
In truth, we're not even sure who Marie II was. Was she daughter Marie Philomène or Marie Heloise? Perhaps Marie II was one of Marie Laveau's granddaughters. There is also some speculation that Marie II was not of relation to Marie Laveau at all. Carolyn Morrow Long writes in her book, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau, "I can only conjecture that the second Marie Laveau, successor to the Queen of Voudous, must have been some other woman who, although unidentified and undocumented in the archival record, lived in the famous cottage on St. Ann during the later decades of the nineteenth century." Marie II, another mystery that surrounds the enigmatic life of Marie Laveau.
Marie Laveau will always be a central figure in the history of New Orleans. If we go by the obituaries that were written about her, she was a healer and philanthropist. She was a woman who nursed the unfortunate souls stricken by Yellow Fever, who ministered the prisoners in the Parish Prison, and who attended Catholic Mass daily. Perhaps there was Voodoo woven through her faith and service. We'll never know. The one rumor that has proven itself to be true was that secrets were safe Marie Laveau. And still are. Including her own.
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