Wednesday was voodoo queen Marie Laveau\u2019s birthday. She turned 224 years old. Sure, Laveau died at age 79 in 1881 and was entombed in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. But she\u2019s still around in spirit. At least that\u2019s what flamboyant French Quarter occultist Mary \u201cBloody Mary\u201d Millan<\/a> believes.<\/p>\n In a double shotgun house at 1020-1022 St. Ann St. Wednesday, Bloody Mary led a half-dozen tourists in an enthusiastic rendition of \u201cHappy Birthday.\u201d A cake was cut and Champagne foamed onto the floor. The sparkling wine wasn\u2019t wasted, Bloody Mary said, because the otherworldly beings that wander the place expect their share. \u201cThey always get libations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Bloody Mary, who runs the nearby Haunted Museum on North Rampart Street, rents half of the St. Ann double shotgun where Laveau\u2019s home once stood. She uses the place as an art studio and office, where she\u2019s working on a book about Laveau.<\/p>\n Trouble is, she said, for the past few months, the ghostly activities in the house have been so distracting she hasn\u2019t been able to get much work done. Sure enough, on Wednesday, a tall, strapping dude from New Mexico, who\u2019d signed up for Bloody Mary\u2019s Marie Laveau birthday tour, said he\u2019d heard a disembodied male voice murmuring in the back patio of the St. Ann house.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A painting of Voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau in the window at the French Quarter home of Jody “Cajun Queen” Boudreaux. The location of the house in the 1000-block of St. Ann Street was once the site where Voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau lived in New Orleans. A fire damaged the rear half of the building on Monday, May 19, 2025. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Spirits, Bloody Mary explained, always get riled up when there\u2019s construction or renovation in an old house. Or, in this case, a fire. Back on May 19, the other half of the St. Ann shotgun house caught fire<\/a>. The blaze blackened and blistered the walls before the fire department arrived to drown it out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Bloody Mary has reason to believe Marie was looking out for her that night. When she arrived on St. Ann Street in the wee hours, she found the other side of the shotgun badly scorched. \u201cI rushed over here not knowing what to expect,\u201d she said. The neighbor\u2019s half \u201chad burned badly, and it smelled badly,\u201d but when Bloody Mary entered her side, \u201cnothing was touched.\u201d<\/p>\n Psychics have assured her, Bloody Mary said, \u201cthat the whole place should have went (up) and that it was a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mary ‘Bloody Mary’ Millan pours a few drops of Champagne on a shrine dedicated to legendary voodoo queen Marie Laveau in a French Quarter house built at the site of Laveau’s 19th-century home<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n
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