Sheila T. Stroup (born 1943, Covington, Louisiana) is a "Living" section columnist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune . Her column, rather than dealing with the celebrated news events of the day, invariably has to do with perceptions of the otherwise-unnoticed aspects of life, particularly in her native Northshore Region. Part of her style is to refer to her husband Merwin by his surname alone, Stroup. [1]
A frequent topic for Sheila Stroup is dogs. [2] In 1999 her dog Harry was elected Grand Duke in the Canine Court of the Mystic Krewe of Mardi Paws. [3]
Stroup was a featured speaker on the 1996 Business Week program at Southeastern Louisiana University, of which she is alumna. For her fundraising efforts to benefit charitable and not-for-profit organizations, in 2004 Stroup received the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. [4]
In 2009 Stroup was chosen by fellow columnist Chris Rose to serve as the addressee for a series of fictitious e-mails about yet another columnist, Angus Lind, as Rose parodied New Orleans City Councilwoman Stacy Head's e-mails about fellow Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson and other subjects. [5]
Stroup lives near the village of Folsom (which is on LA 25 due north of Covington), have two grown daughters and a son. Stroup's husband died in 2020.
The Mistick Krewe of Comus, founded in 1856, is the oldest, continuous, New Orleans, Louisiana, Carnival Krewe having paraded with few interruptions from 1856 to 1991, while continuing to hold a tableau ball for its members and guests to date. Initally its public facade was The Pickwick Club.
The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in southern Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, but the season actually begins on King's Day, January 6, and extends until midnight before Ash Wednesday. Club, or Krewe, balls start soon after, though most are extremely private, with their Kings and Queens coming from wealthy old families and their courts consisting of the season's debutantes. Most of the high society Krewes do not stage parades. As Fat Tuesday gets nearer, the parades start in earnest. Usually there is one major parade each day ; many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the Mardi Gras season. In the final week, many events occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities, including parades and balls.
The Krewe of Orpheus is a New Orleans Mardi Gras super krewe and social organization.
Krewe of Tucks is a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe.
Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson is an American politician who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002, and multiple tenures on the New Orleans City Council. She has been Honorary consul of Lithuania in New Orleans since December 2014. She is the mother of actress Patricia Clarkson.
Krewe of Bacchus is a New Orleans Mardi Gras super krewe.
Chris Rose is a New York Times Best-Selling New Orleans, Louisiana, writer and journalist. For years best known for light-hearted writing in the Times-Picayune, he gained greater attention for his chronicles of the effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans since 2005.
Mardi Gras in the United States is not observed nationally across the country, largely due to the country's Protestant and Anglo-Saxon roots. Mardi Gras and Carnival are mostly Catholic holidays, while the United States has a Protestant-majority population. However, a number of cities and regions in the U.S. have notable Mardi Gras or Carnival celebrations. Most of these places trace their Mardi Gras celebrations to French, Spanish, and other Catholic colonial influences on the settlements over their history. The earliest Carnival celebration in North America occurred at a place on the west bank of the Mississippi River about 60 miles (97 km) downriver from where New Orleans is today; this Mardi Gras on March 3, 1699, and in honor of this holiday, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, a 38-year-old French Canadian, named the spot Point du Mardi Gras near Fort Jackson. The earliest organized Carnival celebrations occurred in Mobile, then the capitol of French Louisiana known as Fort Louis de la Mobile, where in 1704 the first known Carnival secret society. In 1856, six Mobile natives established the first secret society, or krewe, in New Orleans, the Mistick Krewe of Comus. Former French and Spanish colonies such as Pensacola, Biloxi, and settlements along the Gulf Coast all followed suit in incorporating Carnival into their annual celebrations, which today have developed either separate traditions or variations of them from one another. In addition, modern activities generally vary from city to city across the U.S.
James Gill is a writer and a columnist from the United Kingdom.
Stacy Aline Singleton Head is an American lawyer and former president of the New Orleans City Council.
Norman Hollis Robinson is a former journalist in New Orleans, where he served as reporter for WVUE-TV from 1976 to 1978 and WWL-TV from February 1979 through July 1989, and later news anchor for WDSU-TV Channel 6 (NBC), where he worked in the news department from July 1990 until his retirement in May 2014.
Angus Lind is retired American journalist. He retired in July 2009 after 39 years with the Times-Picayune and the now-defunct afternoon States-Item newspaper. He began as a general assignment reporter for the States-Item in 1970 and covered the biggest local news stories of that decade, including the plane crash of U.S. Rep. Hale Boggs (D-LA) in Alaska, the Downtown Howard Johnson sniper incident, the Rault Center fire in which five women leaped to their deaths, the Upstairs Lounge fire, and the construction of the Louisiana Superdome.
Edward Joseph Price III, is an American former politician in Louisiana who served as the mayor of Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish. After first being elected in April 1996, he resigned from office in October 2009 while under indictment for perjury. He later served 40 months in prison on charges of income tax evasion and corruption.
The Krewe of Proteus is a New Orleans Carnival Krewe founded in 1882, the oldest continuously parading Old Line Krewe.
Charles L. "Pie" Dufour (1903–1996) was an American newspaper journalist, historian, humorist, and book author from New Orleans, Louisiana who served as a columnist for the New Orleans States-Item newspaper. He wrote approximately 9700 installments of his column "Pie Dufour's A La Mode" for the States-Item and for the Sunday edition of the New Orleans Times-Picayune during his newspaper tenure, from 1949 until his retirement in 1978. He authored 20 books and approximately 50 articles for scholarly literature. Dufour's column covered diverse topics including Louisiana history, New Orleans Mardi Gras, law, local sports, classical music, New Orleans cuisine, and European travel.
Lucky Diamond was a female Maltese owned by Wendy Diamond, media personality and publisher of Animal Fair Magazine. Lucky is the current Guinness World Record holder for most photographed dog with celebrities.
Dorothy Mae DeLavallade Taylor, was an educator and politician in New Orleans, the first African-American woman to be elected to and serve in the Louisiana House of Representatives. From 1971 to 1980, she represented District 20, since renumbered, in her native New Orleans. She had started her career as a teacher in the Head Start Program, designed to benefit children in their early years.
"If Ever I Cease to Love" is a music hall song published by the English Lion comique George Leybourne, who was popular in the Victorian music venues, in 1871. It has been performed by several musical artists and theatrical entertainers, including Lydia Thompson, who featured the song in her traveling operetta Bluebeard. Though Leybourne is best known for his composition "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", the comedic lyrical content and catchy melody of "If Ever I Cease to Love" became tremendously appealing in New Orleans. Since the first Rex parade in 1872, the tune has been ceremoniously played to the krewe's figurehead, Rex, who bears the title "King of Carnival" in New Orleans.
The Krewe of Cleopatra is a New Orleans Mardi Gras Super Krewes and social organization.
Mardi Paws is a Mardi Gras procession in Covington, Louisiana dedicated to animal welfare.
