By Jessica Gorman
You may know the story of Minden’s Mardi Gras tragedy. In February 1923, nine girls were burned during a Mardi Gras performance at Minden High School. Four of them died. Newspapers described it as “Minden’s darkest hour…when the city was cast in inutterable gloom, because of the terrible tragedy which caused so much suffering and snatched from her midst, some of the fairest and most beloved of her treasurers.” Let’s take a closer look at who each one of these girls was.
The horror of that night began when Alma Sullivan’s dress was ignited by a sparkler intended to be used as part of the performance. She was the seventeen year old daughter of E.E. and Bettie Tharpe Sullivan. The newspaper reported that she “hovered between life and death” for months. There was little hope for her recovery, but within the year, Alma was married to W.C. McDonald who worked for an oil company in Haynesville. They later moved to Houston. They had two children, Elizabeth and Edward. Alma died in 1951.
The first to succumb to her injuries was Mabel Hickman. She had celebrated her sixteenth birthday just one month prior. Mabel was the daughter of L & A Railroad conductor, J.B. Hickman and his wife, Iva. Her funeral was the first of three conducted on February 15th. She is buried in the Minden Cemetery. The Hickmans later moved to Dallas.
Eva Eleanor Lowe, daughter of John Turpin Lowe and Erma Ann Fulbright, was just seven years old when she died. She had not been a part of the performance that night but was backstage and, as the other girls ran by, her dress also caught fire. She died the following day and was buried in the Minden Cemetery. Eva was the niece of W. Matt Lowe, who had previously held the office of mayor. She had a younger brother, John Jr., who was born in October of that year and never knew his older sister. Her father, John T. Lowe owned a store in Minden in the 1920s. It was sold and became Ford’s Store in 1927. In 1929, just six years after the death of little Eva and the day before John Jr.’s birthday, John Sr. died. His obituary reported that he had suffered an illness for the previous five years. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Lowe ran the Pick and Pay Market and later sold out to Jackson & Owen. She remarried to Robert Brown. John Jr. became a dentist and practiced in Shreveport.
Dorothy Cheshire would have celebrated her sixteenth birthday later that month. She was the daughter of Jesse Sandlin and Dolly Fort Cheshire. Her uncle, Connell Fort was mayor at the time of the tragedy.
Eugenia Burt was fifteen or sixteen years old. So far, I haven’t found her specific date of birth. She was the daughter of Robert E. and Laura Stuart Burt. Her father was a railroad agent for the L & A Railway.
Ruth Reagan was fifteen years old. She was the daughter of Early Brown and Anna Tood Reagan and the granddaughter of Sheriff J. W. Reagan. Ironically, her parents’ wedding trip in 1901 was to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Ruth’s father also died just a few years after the tragedy. His death occurred in 1928. Her mother died in 1933. After graduating from Minden High School, Ruth attended the University of Arkansas where she completed a Bachelor of Arts followed by a Bachelor of Science from LSU School of Library Science. She worked as a teacher in Cotton Valley and at the library there before serving as parish librarian for the Sabine Parish Library from 1935 until 1937. In 1937, she was named Director of the Webster Parish Library. The following year, on May 5, Ruth was married to James Garrity Baird. The ceremony took place in the Reagan home on Broadway.
Valerie Watson, an orphan, was living in Minden with her widowed aunt, Mrs. Irene Watson Whitmarsh. She has proved more difficult to trace. In 1927, Valerie is named among a trio from Minden who performed at the Washington Hotel ballroom in Shreveport.
Eloise Hough was seventeen years old. She was the daughter of Mr. A. M. and Ella Turner Hough. Her father was elected sheriff of Webster Parish in 1928. He died from complications of the flu just days after the devasting tornado that hit Minden in 1933. Eloise married Troy Sikes and moved to Arkansas.
Vashti Bullock had just celebrated her seventeenth birthday. She went to work in 1924 for Western Union in Shreveport. She first married to Henry King, a railroad foreman. She later married Donald M. Miller and lived in Honolulu and San Diego.
The town of Minden was devasted by the deaths of these girls. While there were some Mardi Gras events held, Mardi Gras was not celebrated on the same scale that it had been for many years after the events of that night.
(Jessica Gorman is the Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, and an avid genealogist.)