Mardi Gras season is close and two Nicholls students, Mary Catherine Shaver, nursing sophomore from Thibodaux and Francesca Ledet, freshman from Houma have been living double lives as queens and college students.
They are Nicholls students while walking past them, but they have lives of being royalty outside of school.
Shaver is the queen of Chronos this year. The Krewe of Chronos has been a part of the Mardi Gras season for 58 years. The Krewe started in March of 1954 bringing Mardi Gras excitement from New Orleans to Thibodaux.
“When I was 8 years old, a good family friend that was going to be king asked my dad if I would be the queen with him in 2012,” Shaver said. “They kept it a secret from me because I just found out that I was going to be queen.”
Shaver said Chronos has a long lineup of future queens up to the year of 2025. Chronos is mostly a male Krewe where the picked king has the opportunity to pick who the queen will be. The picked queen is usually related to one of the Krewe members.
“I never thought being queen was something I was able to do,” Shaver said. “Once I found out, I was like ‘this is awesome.'”
Shaver has been a part of Chronos’ royalty starting from being a junior maid to a maid when she was in high school.
“The difference between being a maid and a queen is that I don’t have to wear that big feather costume thing compared to planning certain events with the Krewe,” Shaver said. “I also got to pick all of my maids.”
While being a full-time student, Shaver goes to all of Chronos’ events and plans for the ball and upcoming parade. The ball is Feb. 11, and the parade is Feb. 19.
“When I go to plan my wedding, hopefully when it happens, it will be a breeze compared to what I have to do now,” Shaver said.
Ledet is the queen of Terreanians this year. The Krewe of Terreanians had their first parade on Feb. 5, 1951 in Houma after conjuring up all of the floats, costumes and decorations.
“The king usually picks the queen so the king this year is my godfather, and he wanted me to be queen,” Ledet said. “So I signed up to do it, and I became the queen.”
Ledet said the theme for this year is “When I grow up” where the maids and dukes have costumes that represent dream jobs.
“I was maid two years ago when my sister was my queen so I thought I would be queen when I was like 23 like my sister,” Ledet said. “When I became queen I was like ‘dad, you know I am only 19, right?’ and he said ‘Yeah, its okay.’ I wasn’t really expecting this.
Ledet said her sister was queen in 2010, and now her family is enjoying her reign as queen.
“I am more relatable to the maids because I am not like an older age,” Ledet said. “They are juniors and seniors in high school, and I can relate to them because I just came from where they were.”
Ledet said her duties of queen are to organize and communicate with the Krewe for events. It is also time consuming. The ball is Feb. 18 and the parade is Feb. 19.
“I am still working on balancing school with being queen,” Ledet said. “After this, hopefully I can make my 8:35 class.”
