Walking to the back of this multi-room storage area, lined floor-to-ceiling with shelving full of records, Leumas stands on tiptoe and pulls down a large tome. The original documents have been painstakingly preserved, rebound into big books of acid-free sleeves, each containing one of the old pages. Leumas opens the church sexton's burial records from the s for St. Running her hand carefully along the script, she reads aloud:. I certify that Mrs. Glapion, a native of New Orleans, aged 98, although somebody has corrected it and put a 7 in place of the 9 years, died of diarrhea on the 15th of this month at 8 o'clock in her residence at Number St.
Anne Street, buried in the family tomb of the Widow Paris, the middle vault, opened by order of Philomene Laveau. Leumas explains that Philomene Laveau was Marie's daughter. The Daily Picayune would run a story the following day about the death and burial of Marie Laveau in St. There's really no mystery to it. Mundane as it sounds, Marie Laveau is right where she's supposed to be, in the tomb with her common-law husband, Christophe Glapion, surrounded by the remains of their many children and other relatives.
Back in the cemetery, I walk and film, stopping to read grave markers and old brass placards as I go. It's strangely quiet and peaceful, not eerie at all. No sense of ghosts as I walk the narrow pathways between tombs, more of a haphazard maze than a grid.
Later Lee Leumas joins me for a private tour of the cemetery. Her family goes back to in New Orleans "practically on the boat with Bienville,'' she says and multiple branches of her own family are present in No.
When you go back to look at the years, everybody's in here. We stop at the tomb and a placard for Pierre Derbigny. Governor Pierre Derbigny, we go back to him directly. His daughter marries into the Gagnet family. He's one of the ones that writes the first Louisiana Code.
You've seen the burial record books, all the books. Think about all the people that lived during the s, the s, the s and we're still burying people here today. It's tens of thousands. The exception is people with family tombs in No. They can get a Family Pass from the Archdiocese that allows unaccompanied access during regular visiting hours.
A list of tour guide services can be found on the Catholic Cemeteries of New Orleans web page for St. He can be reached at aboyd nola. Follow him on Twitter at gandrewboyd.
Edit Close. Toggle navigation. Close 1 of 2. Graveyards don't creep me out. Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission. But the defacement, which includes Xs written in marker on the Laveau tomb as part of a local ritual for good luck that appears to have been encouraged by unofficial tour guides, has accelerated in recent months, said Sarah McDonald, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which owns the cemetery.
In one particularly egregious incident last year, someone broke into the cemetery and painted the entire Laveau tomb pink, triggering a tedious restoration, McDonald said. The money will be spent on beefing up security at the site, with the current arrangement of security cameras and some on-site staff during open hours proving insufficient, McDonald said. Ann Street cottage, surrounded by family and community members, including her only surviving child Marie Philomene, Marie Laveau passed away.
Her family members would have seen to the adherence of Creole mourning traditions, such as covering mirrors and placing a black wreath on the front door. According to the Daily Picayune, many people squeezed into the small home to get a last look at the much loved and revered woman.
Louis Cemetery 2, archival records show that Marie is buried in her family vault in St. Louis Cemetery 1. Joining her husband Christophe Glapion, her children, grandchildren, and other family members, Marie is entombed in the middle vault of the Laveau-Glapion family tomb. Raymond Rivaros and Ayola Cruz, sextons of St.
They make crosses with red brick, charcoal, and sharp rocks.
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