Krewe Ball 2013: A Night Under the Big Top

Boutwell Auditorium was transformed into a festive circus the evening of Feb. 8 for the 46th Annual Beaux Arts Krewe Ball.

Bold-colored streamers hung around the auditorium alongside the Krewe’s traditional crests and vintage circus posters, bringing the “Under the Big Top” theme to life.

Leading up to the presentation of 24 princesses, Krewe members processed into the circus stage to a Sousa march as acrobats tumbled around them. Child pages dressed as clowns sang and danced to circus tunes and the pop song “Firework” by Katy Perry.

King William Edgar Welden and Queen Lenora Ireland “Nonie” Brown, sparkling in their ornate regalia, descended on their thrones, followed by the presentation of Ladies in Waiting Lindsey Harris Badham, Jane Comer Crockard, Anne DeWitt Thompson and Eugenia Maxwell Thompson, and then the 19 princesses: Jane Austin Ault, Beverley Waters Blount, Caroline Brinson Brown, Virginia Clayton Clark, Catherine Jane Compton, Shirley Caroline Crozier, Frances Newman Deaton, Delia Thornton Folk, Sarah Reid Harris, Taylor Gore Hiden, Margaret Livingston Hindman, Margaret Richardson King, Mary Riley Ogilvie, Sara Frazer Oliver, Margaret Alexandra Pitts, Melissa Jane Teel Robinson, Elizabeth Bailey Troiano, Elizabeth Ann Williams and Alexandra Ray Wilson.

Queen Nonie, a graduate of Mountain Brook High School, is now a junior at The University of Alabama, where she is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and majoring in Spanish. A member of St. Peter’s Anglican Church, she has taken several mission trips.

Queen Nonie is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Ireland II and the late Mr. and Mrs. Tom Tartt Brown. She is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Tom Tartt Brown Jr. and the younger sister of Amanda and Tommy.

Her aunt Mallie Ireland was the Queen of the Krewe in 1975; her aunt Kacy Mitchell was a Lady in Waiting in 1972; and her mother was a Princess in the 1979 Krewe Ball.

She wore the dress of family friend, the late Barbara Shook. The Shook gown was worn by Barbara’s daughter Elesabeth when Elesabeth was the queen in 1981; it was then donated to the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Queen Nonie’s escort was William Lee Jenkins of Baton Rouge.