Marie Laveau

About

This 19th-century New Orleans Voodoo practitioner lived a life shrouded in mystery and inspired numerous works of art and literature, appearing in assemblage pieces by visual artist Renee Stout and becoming a character in several Marvel Comics publications.

Before Fame

She grew up in the French Quarter of New Orleans as the child of biracial, Roman Catholic parents.

Trivia

She was the subject of author Jewel Parker Rhodes' 1993 work Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau.

Family Life

In 1819, she married a Haitian immigrant named Jacques Paris. She later had as many as fifteen children with a man named Christophe Dominick Duminy de Glapion.

Associated With

She was the subject of poet Shel Silverstein's 1974 song "Marie Laveau" (written for country singer Bobby Bare).