Lulu White’s Obituary

While working on my research about Storyville for my video series, I found something interesting. I didn’t know much about Lulu White, so I didn’t realize a July 1931 obituary would be strange because the state of Louisiana says she died in August 1931.

There is no biography of Lulu White written in English. The only one I’ve found was written by Al Rose in French in 1991¹. We know she was born in Alabama and came to New Orleans when she was young. She worked in brothels to survive. Lulu seems to have been a marketing genius (I’ll explore my thoughts on that in a future article). She produced a directory for her house, Mahogany Hall, in 1898, which is the earliest known directory for Storyville. The later directories were produced by Tom Anderson and are known as Blue Books.

Lulu was known for her house of “octoroons” or mixed race women. She was also known for extravagance with the first elevator in the District. She wore a red wig and a diamond alligator brooch wrapped around her neck. In Storyville by Al Rose, the Fancy Man recounts his father taking him to Mahogany Hall to lose his virginity. It was where the men who thought of themselves as high society went. Lulu was eventually pardoned by the president of the United States.

But even with all the notoriety she gained, she died penniless by most accounts, and her death is particularly mysterious. According to the state of Louisiana, she died on August 20, 1931. But there is a legend that she was seen withdrawning money at a bank in 1941.

When Did She Die?

I started researching my typical way — searching the newspaper archives for any articles about her. After a few hours of clipping, I decided to see when she died to know how much further I had to go.

Ahhh 1931. I was already at 1929. I got to the article about her death, and I went to Wikipedia to see where to go next.

Death: August 20, 1931. Hmmm….the article I clipped was published in July 1931.

There is no doubt who this article is referring to. I wish they said who the reports came from as I haven’t found any other newspaper articles about her death.

So When Did She Die?

I flipped to the section about Lulu in Spectacular Wickedness². Emily Landau cites the court case pending against her that had a note about her death dated August 21 to show that she died in August 1931. The citation for her death certificate reads, “Death Certificate of Lulu White, shown to the author by Shelley Johnson Carey, who retains possession of it.” This seems very strange to me because Louisiana death certificates are public record and easily searchable in an online database.

If you search the Secretary of State historical vital statistics, you can see that Lula Hardtner White is recorded as dying on August 20, 1931. Hardtner??? I thought her name was Hendley³…That’s another rabbit hole for another day…as far as I know (and I would love to learn otherwise!) Louisiana has not digitized death certificates yet.

You can request your own uncertified copy for $5. But I didn’t have to do that because I found Lulu’s Alabama death record on Ancestry.com using the familial details in Dr. Landau’s book⁴.

She died on June 23, 1931, and⁵ was buried on June 24, 1931, in Selma, Alabama. Her birthday was August 14, 1886. Her spouse was Philmore White, father was Robert Hendley, and her mother was Amanda Tipton.

Is this Lulu?

Perhaps 1886 is a transposition error. Or perhaps Lulu was 14 when she’s first recorded in the 1900 census in New Orleans. Unfortunately, it wasn’t unusual to have children working in the District. An 1886 birth date would explain why Lulu doesn’t appear in the 1870 census, as noted by Dr. Landau. Dr. Landau doesn’t mention the 1880 census, and I couldn’t find her record there either. Makes sense if she wasn’t born yet. The 1890 census was destroyed in a fire. In 1900, she claims she was born in 1868, which would make her 32 years old. If she was actually born in 1886, she was only 14.

Lulus in the Newspaper

The first I found Lulu White in the newspaper was 1888 at No. 3 Basin Street.

Then, in 1891 she has the 166 Customhouse address. The first she appears in the city directory is 1893, that I can find. She would have been five and eight in these instances if she was born in 1886. This is what makes me think 1886 is some kind of error or the wrong person.

There are two people with similar names in the 1893 directory, Lula and Lulu. In addition, Lulu/Lula White appears in the newspaper and census records across the country during the span of Lulu’s life. It was a common name. Maybe I found the death record for another beloved Lulu in Alabama.

Either way that obituary is definitely talking about the Diamond Queen of the Demimonde. It provides another document to give us a glimpse into her life. Perhaps her sister was trying to hide her real age on her death certificate. Perhaps she was so forgotten that no one cared enough to get it right. Perhaps Lulu was actually a child when she entered the underworld in New Orleans. All are equally likely, but I’m glad someone felt moved to document her passing.

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