Anne Rice (1941 – 2021)

Celebrated novelist and beloved New Orleanian Anne Rice passed away on December 11, 2021. She will be interned in her family mausoleum in Metairie Cemetery joining her husband poet and painter Stan and her daughter Michele. Stan passed in 2002 and on the side of the tomb are three plaques: Psalm 212 & 203 (from his book “False Prophet) and the poem Look from his collection of poetry “Some Lamb” published in 1975. Michele, who died at age 6, was the inspiration for the collection. There are roses on the door to the mausoleum and inside has a beautiful stained-glass window with a basket of flowers and the words “May Perpetual Light Shine Upon Them O Lord.”

Rice was also a friend of the cemeteries. This year for the annual Anne Rice Vampire Ball she chose Save Our Cemeteries as the benefactor to her silent auction. Much appreciated!

On a personal note… this had to be sometime in the 1990s, I was watching a Mardi Gras parade (can’t remember which one) and a hearse rolled by. The window rolled down and someone handed out something. I immediately stepped back a bit stunned and the person next to me grabbed what was offered – a plate with Anne Rice’s face on it from the woman herself! Ever since then, I have always taken everything that is handed to me at a Mardi Gras parade – for better or for worse.

Thank you, Anne Rice for all the wonderful experiences you have given everyone. Rest in peace.

If you would like to learn more about Metairie Cemetery and many of their beautiful tombs and mausoleums, please book a tour.

Anne Rice has already had many funerals of her own. She owned a beautiful coffin and would use it to be carried to her book signings at Garden District Bookshop. One time, she was driven up in hearse and taken out by pall bearers dressed like the character from Scream. Another time in 1995, she was loaded into a coffin in Lafayette Cemetery #1 and driven to her book signing in an old-fashioned glass hearse, with a jazz band playing. She once said in an interview as she laid in her coffin, she was able to hear the mournful jazz music and feel every jostle and bump along the way and it was a “wonderful experience.”