John Larroquette: The Carrollton Kid Who Won Four Emmys
Four Emmys and a New Orleans AccentJohn Edgar Larroquette was born in New Orleans on November 25, 1947, and grew up in the Carrollton neighborhood — the uptown area where the streetcar makes its tu...
Dorothy Lamour: The New Orleans Beauty Who Ruled Golden Age Hollywood
The Sarong Girl from New OrleansMary Leta Dorothy Slaton was born in New Orleans on December 10, 1914, and grew up in a modest household in the city. She was crowned Miss New Orleans in 1931, at se...
Tyler Perry: From Homeless in New Orleans to Hollywood's First Black Studio Mogul
From Homeless in New Orleans to Hollywood BillionaireEmmitt Perry Jr. was born in New Orleans on September 13, 1969, and grew up in a household defined by poverty and abuse. His father beat him. Hi...
Sandra Bullock: How Hollywood's Biggest Star Became a Garden District Mom
Hollywood's Biggest Star Chose New OrleansSandra Bullock wasn't born in New Orleans. She was born in Arlington, Virginia, raised partly in Germany, and became famous in Hollywood. But she chose New...
The Axeman of New Orleans: The Serial Killer Who Demanded Jazz
The Jazz-Loving Serial Killer Nobody Ever CaughtBetween May 1918 and October 1919, someone terrorized New Orleans with an axe. The killer — who was never identified, never caught, and never definit...
Baroness Pontalba: Shot Four Times, Then She Built Jackson Square
The Woman Who Made Jackson Square BeautifulMicaela Leonarda Antonia Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, was born in New Orleans in 1795, the daughter of Don Andrés Almonester y Rojas, the wealthiest ...
George Herriman: The Secret Creole Behind America's Greatest Comic Strip
The Secret Creole Who Created America's Greatest Comic StripGeorge Joseph Herriman was born in New Orleans on August 22, 1880, into a mixed-race Creole family. His birth certificate classified him ...
Lafcadio Hearn: The Writer Who Showed the World What New Orleans Was
The Writer Who Introduced New Orleans to the WorldLafcadio Hearn arrived in New Orleans in 1877, a half-blind, penniless, Greek-Irish journalist who had been run out of Cincinnati after a scandal i...
Walter Isaacson: The Broadmoor Kid Who Wrote the World's Biggest Biographies
New Orleans' Favorite BiographerWalter Isaacson was born in New Orleans in 1952 and grew up in Broadmoor, a middle-class neighborhood between Uptown and Mid-City that floods reliably and produces o...
Lillian Hellman: The Prytania Street Girl Who Conquered Broadway
The Most Dangerous Woman in American TheaterLillian Hellman was born in New Orleans on June 20, 1905, into a Jewish family that split its time between the city and New York. She spent her formative...
William Faulkner: The Nobel Laureate Who Became a Writer in the French Quarter
The Nobel Laureate Who Found His Voice on Pirate's AlleyWilliam Faulkner was not born in New Orleans. He was born in Mississippi, and Mississippi would become the landscape of his greatest novels. ...
Marshall Faulk: From the Desire Project to the Hall of Fame
The Ninth Ward's Gift to the NFLMarshall William Faulk was born on February 26, 1973, in New Orleans and grew up in the Desire housing project in the Upper Ninth Ward — one of the most impoverished...
Archie Manning: The Quarterback Who Built Football's First Family in New Orleans
The First Family of FootballElisha Archibald Manning III was born in Drew, Mississippi, in 1949 and became a New Orleanian the hard way — by being drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 1971, the sec...
Louis Prima: The French Quarter Kid Who Became the Wildest Man in Show Business
The Wildest Man in Show BusinessLouis Prima was born on December 7, 1910, in a shotgun house on St. Peter Street in the French Quarter, the son of Sicilian immigrants who had settled in the Italian...
Ruth Benerito: The New Orleans Chemist Who Invented Wrinkle-Free Cotton
The Woman Who Saved Your Shirts from the IronRuth Rogan Benerito was born in New Orleans on January 12, 1916, and grew up to become one of the most important textile chemists in American history — ...
Norbert Rillieux: The New Orleans Engineer Who Changed How the World Makes Sugar
The Free Man of Color Who Revolutionized SugarNorbert Rillieux was born in New Orleans on March 17, 1806, the son of a wealthy white plantation owner and a free woman of color. Under the complex ra...
Masonic Cemetery: The Freemasons’ Resting Place in New Orleans
Masonic Cemetery: The Freemasons’ Resting PlaceMasonic Cemetery is one of the more enigmatic burial grounds in New Orleans. Established in 1868 by the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, Free and Accepted Ma...
St. Peter Street Cemetery: Where New Orleans First Buried Its Dead
St. Peter Street Cemetery: Where New Orleans First Buried Its DeadBefore there were cities of the dead, before the above-ground tombs became the signature of New Orleans burial culture, there was t...
Hebrew Rest Cemetery: On the High Ground of Gentilly Ridge
Hebrew Rest Cemetery: On the High Ground of Gentilly RidgeHebrew Rest Cemetery occupies some of the highest ground in New Orleans—Gentilly Ridge, a natural levee formation that runs through the Gen...
Lafayette Cemetery No. 2: The Forgotten Sister in the Garden District
Lafayette Cemetery No. 2: The Forgotten Sister in the Garden DistrictLafayette Cemetery No. 2 lives in the long shadow of its famous neighbor. While Lafayette No. 1 draws tourists, filmmakers, and ...
