Barbie as Marie Laveau
A Custom OOAK doll designed by Colleen Kelly Spengler
 email the artist at minxkely@xnet.com
Marie Laveau... the undisputed Queen of Voodoo. During her lifetime, she was the source of hundreds of tales of terror and wonder in New Orleans. She was born on Santo Domingo in 1794. Her father was white and she was born a free woman. The first record of her in New Orleans was in 1819, when she married Jacques Paris, another free black. He died in 1826 and Marie formed a liaison with Christophe Glapion, with whom she had she bore a daughter, also named Marie. During her long life (she lived until 1881) she gave birth to fifteen children. That same year, Marie embraced the power of Voodoo and became the queen of the forbidden but widely practiced culture. She was a hairdresser by trade and this allowed her access to many fashionable homes in the city. In this way, she and her daughters had access to a intelligence network that gave Marie her "psychic" powers. She knew everything that was going on in the city just by listening to her customers and her employees.
Marie became a legend in New Orleans, which is particularly amazing in such a segregated culture, but she was more than just a Voodoo practitioner. Marie had an imaginative mind and has been credited with changing Voodoo into much more than just an African superstition. It was Marie who brought the Virgin Mary into Voodoo as the central figure of worship and she borrowed freely to bring Catholic traditions into the culture. Marie died in June of 1881 but many people never realized that she was gone. Her daughter stepped in and took her place and continued her traditions for decades to follow.
Today, Marie and her daughter still reign over the shadowy world of New Orleans Voodoo from the confines of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Both are entombed in this cemetery in two-tiered, white stone structures. The tombs look like so many others in this cluttered cemetery, until you notice the markings and crosses that have been drawn on the stones. Apart from these marks, you will also see coins, pieces of herb, beans, bones, bags, flowers, tokens and all manner of things left behind in an offering for the good luck and blessings of the Voodoo Queen. Many believe that Marie returns to life once each year to lead the faithful in worship on St. John's Eve. It is also said that her ghost has been seen in the cemetery and one man claimed that he was slapped by her while walking past one day.
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All text on this page taken with permission and copyright protected by Troy Taylor, and is an excerpt from his book "Haunted New Orleans" due out this fall. For more information on Marie Laveau and Voodoo, visit his website on Haunted New Orleans. Thanks Troy!

While a Mattel doll was used for this creation, the artist is in no way associated with Mattel.