NEW ORLEANS — On Saturday, the Rex Organization unveiled the names of the King and Queen of Carnival for 2022. Rex is James Reiss III and the Queen of Carnival is Elinor Pitot White. They have the honor of reigning over a very special parade on Mardi Gras for Rex’s 150th anniversary.
As a Rex official who serves on the committee that selects the King of Carnival each year, Reiss is used to keeping secrets. However, this year, the process for him also involved a surprise, when he showed up to a meeting prepared with a list of Rex members he thought deserved the honor.
“They seemed to agree with one of my selections, which I was thrilled about,” Reiss said. “And as we finished up that portion of the meeting, one of the other fellow committeemen stopped the entire meeting and said ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t right. This is not what we agreed upon…We think we’ve made a mistake.’ And I said, ‘You made a mistake? We all agreed.’ He said, ‘No, no, we’ve made a mistake. It needs to be you.’ And they had obviously pre-arranged that, so I was shocked and surprised and thrilled to death.”
Reiss, a graduate of Metairie Park Country Day and Ole Miss, is Executive Vice President of First Horizon Advisors, the wealth advisory division of First Horizon Bank (formerly Iberia Bank).
Like all Kings of Carnival, Reiss has a record of serving his community. In his case, that includes serving his country, with more than 10 years of military service as a U.S. Marine, as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan where he piloted AH-1W Supercobra attack helicopters.
During his military career, he was awarded numerous ribbons, awards, commendations, and medals, including six Air Medals, two for individual heroism, and the Distinguished Flying Cross with Combat “V” for heroism while serving with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773 in Afghanistan. After ten years of active service, he left the Marine Corps as a Captain in 2005.
Since then he has served many military organizations, including the New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy and the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8973.
Reiss serves as co-chair of the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Advisory Council and a board member of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, Audubon Charter, Lighthouse Louisiana and Rex’s Pro Bono Publico Foundation, which has given more than $10 million to local schools since Hurricane Katrina.
“I would say what I’m most proud of is the creation of the Pro Bono Publico Foundation, which embodies the spirit of our motto (for the public good). And really puts into action what it is that we were really founded to do,” he said.
Reiss and his wife Erica have three children. His family connections to Carnival are strong.
“My grandmother, Alice Peak Reiss, was a local artist who was the Rex royal artist for many years, up until 1968. She designed both the floats and the costumes,” he explained.
Reiss’ father, James J. Reiss, Jr., served as a duke in the Rex court in 1959. He himself served as a duke in 1995, and his sister, Lady Catherine Reiss, served as a Rex maid in 1997. His son, James J. Reiss, IV, served as a page in the Rex court in 2019.
As a leader in Rex, Reiss has come to embrace its role in the city and Carnival. As king during this very special year, he reflected on the organization’s 150 years of history.
“Rex was founded on the principles of making the city better at a time when it really needed help economically. It needed a boost in its tourist industry. And I think that’s how people think of us, as an organization that tries to do good by all facets of New Orleans,” he said.
This year’s King of Carnival is close friends with the family of the Queen, Elinor Pitot White, who is known as Ellie. She is a Country Day graduate, now a senior at the University of Texas, majoring in public relations and minoring in business. She is a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
At Country Day, she was in the honor society, a tennis player and volunteered at the Bright School for the Deaf. It was founded in 1959 by members of her family to meet the needs of deaf children, including her dad.
“The Bright School is a very meaningful school to my family,” she said. “I’ve spent many summers there working as an assistant teacher and just anywhere that they need help I’ve helped them out. It’s been wonderful and has made a huge impact for my dad. It has helped so many people.”
White learned she would be queen right before the pandemic, which cancelled last year’s parades and balls. Rex and many other krewes carried over the courts of 2021 to 2022.
White found out she would be Rex’s queen while on a scuba trip vacation with her parents.
“My dad had gotten in the water early and started screaming, ‘Ellie, Virginia, there’s a lobster, you have to come see it!’ So my mom and I ran down and, throwing on our snorkel gear, jumped in the water and started swimming. And there were cups and doubloons and beads, and a crown, but there was no lobster. And I came up to the surface and my mom said ‘Ellie, you’re going to be Queen of Carnival.’ And I was so shocked.”
Family members of White’s who have served as Rex royalty include her great-great aunt Elinor Bright Richardson, for whom White is named. She reigned as Queen of Carnival in 1920, which is when she met her husband, Edmund Richardson, when he served as a Duke in the Rex court that same year.
A great-uncle, William Mehele, reigned as Rex in 1879 and her grandfather, Edgar Allen Gordon Bright, reigned as Rex in 1956. Her cousin Elizabeth Burke Landry was Queen of Carnival in 1980 and another cousin, Ella Bright Baldwin, was queen in 2012.
“To be queen is a huge honor for both me and my family and we are just so humbled and excited to have this experience,” White said.