Even if her father is a King, it's not a given that a girl will grow up to be a Queen.
Yet that's the way it's worked out in the family of George King Logan II, better known to friends and family by his middle name. This Mardi Gras Day, his younger daughter, Ellen Rogers Logan, reigns as Queen of Carnival, sharing the spotlight alongside Rex 2008, John Edward Koerner III, at the Rex Ball and Meeting of the Courts of Rex and Comus.
"On some level, every little girl dreams of being a Queen one day, but I never imagined this," she says. However, clue number one came when she found a crown in the family's freezer.
That happened last summer. "My dad said let's play a game, which wasn't all that unusual, since when we were little we always liked to play board games. He handed me an index card with a little poem written on it, and the words led me to different places around the house. It led me to the freezer, and there was a crown in it, so I knew that I was gonna be Queen of something. Well, the last clue led me to a Scrabble game, and it had pieces with red dots on the backs of the letters, and I had to put each letter together to find out what exactly I was gonna be Queen of. Well, I put 'Queen of' together right away, and as soon as I got to c-a-r I knew that it was Queen of Carnival! It was really, really fun, and I was so excited! I jumped up, and I hugged my parents!"
"And screamed a bit, too," laughs her mother, June Logan.
"Yes, there were screams involved," Ellen admits.
At that point, mother and daughter watched a WYES-TV video of a previous Rex Ball and Meeting of the Courts of Rex and Comus that Mardi Gras night. Well, tonight, it'll be Ellen's turn to play a major role in that tradition, when the Rex Court leaves Rex Headquarters at the Sheraton Hotel to cross Canal Street to head for the Mistick Krewe of Comus Ball, over at the Marriott.
While Ellen will experience Carnival Day 2008 from a Royal Perspective, at least one aspect of the Celebration will be just the same as it always has been for her: Mardi Gras in the Logan household means family time.
Recalling her earliest memories of Mardi Gras, she comments: "I remember being surrounded by my entire family --- from my sister Ginger and my brother King, to aunts and grandparents. It was always such a family occasion" as they watched the Parade together. Now, all four of her grandparents --- Margot and Dr. Sam Logan and June and Dr. Al Bertucci --- plan to attend the Ball to see their Ellen in her Royal Role.
Prior to that, though, 85-year-old Dr. Logan will ride in the Rex Parade for the chance to see her from the vantage point of a float, as she watches the Procession from the reviewing stand over at the Hotel InterContinental. It was 1907 when his father, Dr. George King Logan, was a Rex Duke, a role that his namesake, Ellen's dad, had in 1974, the year before Ellen's aunt, Ms. Margaret Pratt Logan (now Mrs. Milton Fried) reigned as Queen of Carnival.
Others who'll share in the family celebration of Ellen's rise to the role of Queen: King her brother, now 27, and sister Ginger, now 25, both of whom returned to New Orleans after Katrina, according to June, "because they felt that they needed to be a part of the rebuilding process." The Logans themselves have since had to undergo a rebuilding process of their own, in that their home off Metairie Road took on four feet of water during the post-hurricane flooding.
"We moved back in upstairs one year to the very day we evacuated," says King Logan. "We didn't have our own trailer, but our neighbors did, and so they let us use it. So the trailer became our kitchen and dining room" until the downstairs repairs were completed.
Having Ginger --- more formally, Virginia Zatarain Logan --- close by has been a particular boon for Ellen. Ginger was Queen of the Atlanteans and a Rex Court Maid in 2003, and, as her sister will tell you, "I cannot explain how helpful she's been."
Oh, not that Ellen has needed too much in the way of Royal Instruction, having reigned as Queen of the 2005 Harlequins' Ball, shortly after graduating from Sacred Heart. While there, she played on state championship soccer and volleyball teams in her senior year, serving as varsity captain in both sports. She even took part in a mission trip to Nicaragua and a student exchange program in Argentina, and was a Peer Support Leader, as well as a member of the Diversity Team.
A member of University of the South at Sewanee, where she majors in English with a minor in anthropology. Indeed, the night before she was to become a Maid in the Atlantean Court, she was wrapping up an anthropology paper for school. "She's gotta e-mail things in every day," explains June, that being a trade-off for missing a week of so many classes. Currently, Ellen is also considering attending law school after she finishes up her undergraduate studies, and this past summer found her working at the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office, before she left there for the Sewanee/Rhodes European Studies Program.
Her other summer jobs have included being a waitress, which she describes as being "a great experience. It is so hard. But it's also fun, because you get to meet people." And Ellen Rogers Logan is definitely a people person, according to her father. "I think Ellen would tell you," he says, "that her friends and family are what's most important to her." King Logan even describes his youngest child as both "spirited" and "well-rounded." June Logan's adjectives for her little girl, meanwhile, include "loyal" and "loving."
So on the night of February 5th, 2008, those adjectives came into play as Ellen Rogers Logan took on a very special role in a very special tradition. "I see Mardi Gras as the soul of our City, a very important aspect of our City," she says. "To me, Mardi Gras is a way to show that we're back and we're ready to roll."