NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)- Presenting Miss Elinor Pitot White, Queen of Carnival 2022. She’s fit to be queen.
“It feels like they’re just right there with me,” said Elinor Pitot White, Queen of Carnival
Royalty runs deep in her veins. Dating back to 1879, there are 143 years of rex ancestry in her family. They’ve been in the rex organization almost since its inception.
“To be able to look back at those photos and just see how far back our family goes with all of this and I was just so excited and humbled and honored,” said the Queen of Carnival.
Two great-great uncles, two great-great aunts, her great-grandfather, both of her grandfathers, four cousins, her sister and brother, her father, and now, keeping the living tradition alive, she reigns as queen.
“It’s just so meaningful that we have family on both sides that of been a part of the Rex courts,” shared White. “Growing up in New Orleans my favorite thing to do was sit go to the parades either daytime or night time especially on Tuesday because my dad would ride almost every other year.”
Every girl dreams of going to a royal ball, becoming a princess or even a queen, and not many get the chance, which makes this process all the more special. After finding out that she’d be queen, she knew exactly how she wanted to pay tribute to her great-aunt who she is named after, Elinor Bright Richardson, Queen 1987.
“Our first idea when I and my mom are talking about the dress was to try and emulate my gray grade aunt stress Eleanor Bright Richardson and she had these sort of like five-star flowers on the dress but we kind of turned it into a starfish and then she very intricate meeting so we just really based it off of that and it looks great.”
Our Queen of Carnival 2022 is the beloved daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Bright White.
“I found out that I was going to be clean of Carnival while I was on vacation with my parents and we had plans to go snorkeling in that afternoon so I was just like reading lounging and all the sudden my dad’s in the water already screaming there’s a lobster there’s a lobster and so I and my mom ran down jumped in the water and started looking around and there was a lobster in there but he had put out a bunch of beads and cups and the balloons and even a crown and I came up from the water and I was like what is going on and my mom just said you’re gonna be clean of carnival and we went back up and celebrated and looked at old photos so it was great too.”
When Elinor is not off traveling the world, snorkeling, scuba diving, or really anything active, she is studying at the University of Texas in Austin or working on her passion, helping children with disabilities at the Bright School.
As a Country Day grad, she is thrilled to be back home for the return of Carnival and she’s ready to welcome back the visitors and locals to celebrate with her and the Rex court.
“I’m feeling good. I mean there’s so much anticipation for this so, I’m just excited and it’s adrenaline and I’m ready to go you know,” said White.