Moments after the double grand march at the conclusion of the 2026 Carnival season, the monarchs of the Rex Organization and of the Mistick Krewe of Comus, founded respectively in 1872 and 1857, stood as a formidable foursome on the stage at the New Orleans Marriott, the site of the Comus bal masqué. The Rex Grand Ball and imperial reception took place across Canal Street in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel. In accordance with tradition — and at the invitation of the Mistick Krewe — the Rex court joined the Comus one to close the festive season. The shining moment occurred on the Marriott ballroom stage in front of the double throne bench when Rex H. Merritt Lane III and his queen, Miss Kelsey Grace French, and the unnamed Mistick Krewe’s monarch, addressed as Comus, and his queen, Miss Lucile McGlinchey Monsted, acknowledged their applauding audience with a sweep of three scepters and the cup of Comus. It was a dazzling finale to Mardi Gras 2026, as well as to the spirit of the season and its pageantry and pomp.
“Rebirth and Renewal” titled the Rex parade that traveled its customary Uptown route. Recalling that every culture has told such tales, the 2026 Rex peregrination featured a beautiful array of symbolically and artistically rich examples of revival stories and legends, furthering the universality of mankind’s hopes for renewal and focus on the eternal. The incorporated name of Rex is the “School of Design.” The parade’s first stop was at The Josephine on Napoleon Avenue, where his majesty Rex made appropriate toasts. Assembled were the courts of both Rex and Comus. His queen, Kelsey French, joined him hours later, where they, as significant royalty, appeared on the white-canvased ballroom floor of the Sheraton after the playing of the Marine Corps Band New Orleans in recognition of the Rex organization’s traditional homage to the military. A musical mélange ensued, which elicited rhythmic clapping from the elegant audience members. The women were in floor-length ball gowns, most in eye-catching colors, and the men with a few exceptions (such as military), wore the “de rigueur” white tie and tails. Always a highlight of the band program are the anthems for the various branches of the service. Attendees were invited to stand for the one(s) meaningful to them. Many did.
After the band’s departure to hearty and appreciative applause from the assembly, the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra played a drum roll to announce the king and queen of Carnival. The Rex and Carnival anthem, “If Ever I Cease to Love,” cued the appearance of the dazzling duo, Mr. Lane and Miss French, daughter of Mr. William Darwin French and Ms. Kara Van de Carr and stepdaughter of the latter’s husband, Mr. Daryl Glynn Byrd. Last year the crowns were worn by Mr. E. Howell Crosby and Miss Tatum Lady Reiss, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James J. Reiss III. Paces behind the 2026 royalty were the pages, Masters Henry Hood Kolb and Edward Briggs Smallpage, whose great-great-grandfather, Clifford Favrot, reigned as Rex in 1957, and his aunt Charlotte Smallpage Sapir held the scepter in 2006. Other family members reigning as queen of Carnival were Lynn Favrot Nolan, 1973, and Mary Stewart Smallpage Bailey, 1985.
Then came the maids and dukes, who were paired as Emma Rose Baumer and John Stafford Charbonnet, Brooke Coleman Reiss and Christopher Richard Schmidt, Lillian Lair Hooper and Douglas Bernhardt Heebe, Cameron Sinclair Andrews and Walker Rowan Reynolds, Susan Anne Le Clercq and Luke Hilliard Charpentier, Kate Faulkner Bensel and William Davis Hardie, Charlotte Sydney Wirth and Christian Gibbs Hooper Jr., and Eleanor Katherine Cowan and Thomas Andrew Wisdom. During their just-concluded debutante year, several have worn crowns for other krewes: Misses Reiss, Proteus; Bensel, Osiris; and Wirth, Achaeans. A number of the 2026 court members have connections to Rex royalty and/or maids, dukes, pages and debutantes (presented to the monarchs) from the past. Maid Brooke Reiss’ father, James, wore the crown in 2022, and her aforementioned sister, Tatum, reigned last year. Their cousin, as Katherine Elise Ballard, was the 1989 monarch. Going back three centuries, Eleanor Cowan’s great-great-grandmother, Caro Labatt, was queen of Carnival in 1877. That year, a formal Rex parade of 25 designed floats established a tradition of Mardi Gras.
Concerning the dukes, John Charbonnet’s father, Storey; grandfather John; and aunt Anne Charbonnet Goliwas reigned in 2020, 1988 and 1990. Will Hardie’s ancestors, Matthew J. Sanders and Eben Hardie, were hailed as Rex in 1902 and 1962. Similarly, Chris Schmidt had royal ancestors in Hugh McClosky, 1913, and Frederick Watkins Evans, 1923. Rex royalty in the family of Tommy Wisdom has included A.B. Freeman, 1932; Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin, 1953; Richard W. Freeman, 1959; and many monarchs surnamed Freeman over the more recent years. His sister, Helen Elizabeth Wisdom, reigned as the 2024 Comus queen. The 2026 regal pair, Rex Merritt and queen of Carnival Kelsey, have extensive regal lineage. His majesty’s grandfather, Joseph Merrick Jones and his daughter Sarah Eleanor Lane held the scepters of 1958 and 2020, and her majesty Kelsey’s family traces royalty to 1889, John G. Schreiver, the first of five kings. Both of her paternal grandparents, Dr. Ronald J. French and Flora Fenner French, who happened to be born on the same day, also happened to enjoy royalty in 2007 and 1959.
A debutante trio was presented to monarchs Merritt and Kelsey. They were Misses Mary Cooper Moore, Alexandra Kay Murphy and Helen Claire Thompson. They were announced, as were their parents, and given a decoration from Rex. Just prior to the appearance of the three debutantes, a special Rex decoration was presented to Lt. Gen. Leonard F. Anderson IV, Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and U.S. Marine Corps Forces South. Noted were several distinguished guests, including New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno and her husband, Chris Meeks; New Orleans Police Department Chief Anne Kirkpatrick; Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson; and Archbishop James F. Checchio, of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, who was accompanied by Monsignor Christopher Nalty. His cousin Elizabeth Shaw Nalty wore the Rex crown in 1991.
The Rex ball committee for the 154th year of the reign was headed by chairman St. Denis J. Villere III and assistant ball chairman G. Perry Eastman IV. Both have extensive Rex connections, many regal. In addition to them, thirty-three men form the committee, including ball narrator Mark C. Romig and James J. Reiss III, ex-officio. Completing the program of the ball were the grand march of the Rex members and their dance, general dancing (or mingling, reception style), the arrival of the captain of Comus, and final dancing or socializing. Such was the title on the beautiful invitation extended by the Mistick Krewe of Comus for Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras evening) at the Marriott. Patricia Hardin was the artist.
Approximately two hours after the start of the Rex Grand Ball, the Comus captain and lieutenants arrived to invite the Rex court to their masked ball in the Marriott. It is always a triumphal moment when the Rex monarchs and their entourage appear and the guests at the Comus ball see them for the first time. Her majesty Lucile McGlinchey Monsted, called Lucy, and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Niels Monsted IV, was the aforementioned queen of the Mistick Krewe. She succeeded the 2024 monarch, Miss Mary Grace Jenkins, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Scott Jenkins. Maids to queen Lucy were Misses Priscilla Randle Aucoin, Ashley Conner Ellis, Eliza Brandon Favrot, Caroline LeBon Henry, Sarah Crusel Henry, Caroline Grace LeBourgeois, and Elizabeth McLundie Bolton Schmidt. Five were addressed as “Your Majesty” by select krewes in the past weeks: Ashley Ellis, Twelfth Night Revelers, whose ball on Jan. 6 opened the Carnival season; Eliza Favrot, the Knights of Momus; Caroline Henry, Mithras; Caroline “Nina” LeBourgeois, Atlanteans; and Ellie Schmidt, Mystery. Masters Alexander Charles Navarro Jr. and Sanders Tipton Powell were the pages of Comus, the king, and Masters Henry James Schwing and Devereux Parker Moring III, those of the queen.
The maids and pages have quite a few Comus-court connections, such as Sarah Henry’s grandmother, Carolyn Crusel Wogan, queen in 1965, who figured at the ball with spouse John. Her majesty Lucy counts a number of male ancestors as royals and holders of important positions within the organization, the Syntax Society. Her in-attendance grandmother, as Jessie Wing Sinnott (and later Monsted), reigned in 1962, and her aunts, as Caroline Monsted, Anne Wing Monsted and Muffin Labouisse, wore Comus crowns in 1993, 1996 and 1999. At the Comus ball, where the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra entertained, the brace of debutante queens, Kelsey and Lucy, were striking cynosures in their regal finery. Monarch Kelsey appeared in a gorgeous gown created by Suzanne Perron St. Paul that featured a sweetheart neckline and an A-line silhouette. A favorite Rex float inspired a motif of lilies and butterflies that became beaded and encrusted gold-lace appliqués adorning the regal robe. The ensemble was completed with the parure worn by her grandmother, Flora Fenner French, during her royal rule of Rex in 1959.
More design came in the form of the invitations from Rex and Comus, as well as bejeweled pins given by the royalty to select guests. At the balls, the pins were either affixed to ball gowns or worn as pendants on a thin silk cord, white for Rex, and blue for Comus. They were sported by such ladies as the spouse of Rex, Elly Lane, a former Mystic queen, as were Maria Wisdom, Courtney Freeman, and Kia Brown, spouse of a past Rex, Christian T. Brown. Also, Erica Reiss, a mother and spouse of Rex royalty, and of a 2026 Rex maid, Brooke. Noted, too, were Kara Van de Carr and Fionuala McGlinchey Monsted, the royal mothers of this year’s majesties.
Always the highlight and the evocation of decades of tradition, the closing gesture at the Comus ball during the meeting of the courts is the above-mentioned sweep of three scepters and the sparkling cup. Carnival 2026 and Mardi Gras were thus concluded. In turn, each royal departed the Marriott ballroom, which was covered in pristine white canvas. The first to leave was queen Lucy, and the last, Rex Merritt. His final gesture appeared to be a fly-fishing thrust. Smiles and applause abounded. At the invitation of their majesties, the two queens, a joint gala supper followed back in the Napoleon Ballroom of the Sheraton. Along with late-night breakfast fare, dancing to the Phunky Monkeys beckoned. Their song, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” said it all.…Read more by Nell Nolan