With photos by Mike Wald
The circus came to town for Mardi Gras weekend Feb. 8 as the Beaux Arts Krewe hosted the 46th annual Beaux Arts Ball at Boutwell Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham.
The event supports the Birmingham Museum of Art. This year’s ball had a circus theme.
Reigning over the ball were king William Edgar Welden and queen Lenora Ireland Brown.
“Queen Nonie” graduated from Mountain Brook High School and is a member of St. Peter’s Anglican Church. She has taken several mission trips with the church. She was an Arlington Belle and was presented at Holiday Assembly.
She is a junior at the University of Alabama, where she is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She is majoring in Spanish and is a member of the President’s list, Phi Sigma Theta National Honor Society and Sigma Alpha Lambda National Leadership and Honors organization.
She is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Tom Tartt Brown Jr. and the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Ireland II and the late Mr. and Mrs. Tom Tartt Brown.
She has a brother, Tommy and a sister, Amanda.
Royalty runs in Nonie’s family. Her aunt, Mallie Ireland, was the Queen of the Krewe in 1975, her aunt Kacy Mitchellwas a Lady- in-waiting in 1972 and her mother was a Princess in the 1979 Krewe Ball.
The queen’s royal escort was William Lee Jenkins.
Ladies-in-waiting and their escorts were Lindsey Harris Badham and David Alan Elliott Jr., Jane Comer Crockard and Charles Matthew White, Anne DeWitt Thompson and John Houston Blount, and Eugenia Maxwell Thompson and Richard Miller Fitts.
The Princesses presented at the ball and their escorts were Jane Austin Ault and William David Summers, Beverly Waters Blount and Ian Wilson Dingwall, Caroline Brinson Brown and Jake Lubert Morrow III, Virginia Clayton Clark and Simon Nicholas Fiedler Basilico, Catherine Jane Compton and Cameron Taylor Pulsifer, Shirley Caroline Crozier and Robert Major Steele, Frances Newman Deaton and Robert Wilson King, Delia Thornton Folk and Wiley Allan Anderson, Sarah Reid Harris and Thomas Alexander Harrison, Taylor Gore Hiden and Christopher Winthrop Ives Jr., Margaret Livingston Hindman and Clayton Glenn Avery, Margaret Richardson King and Deakins Ford Rushton Jr., Mary Riley Ogilvie and Charles Alan Deer, Sara Frazer Oliver and Stephen Brice Elliott, Margaret Alexander Pitts and James Lawrence Goyer IV, Melissa Jane Teel Robinson and William Kavanaugh Echols, Elizabeth Bailey Troiano and Conrad Lawrence Walko, Elizabeth Ann Williams and Daniel Butler Sparks, and Alexandra Ray Wilson and David Auston Smith.
The king’s dukes of the royal court were Edward Allen Smith, Steven Conary Hydinger, James Walton Rainer Jr., Fred Weyman Renneker III, Roy William Robertson Jr., William Bowden Welden, Joseph Edward Welden Jr. and William Edgar Welden Jr.
The queen’s guards were Robert Holman Head, Rest Baker Heppenstall, William Anderson Legg Jr., Henry Sprott Long Jr., James Louis Priester, Temple Wilson Tutwiler III, George Frederick Wheelock III and John Miles Williams.
The king’s trainbearers were Joy Louise Holman, Jamie MacKinnon Holman Jr., Welden Williams Holman, Mary Frances Robertson, William Edgar Welden III, Allen Cleve Welden, Robert Evan Welden and Ann Derby Welden.
The queen’s trainbearers were William Evard Flowers, Guy Kenneth Mitchell IV, Madeline McRae Mitchell, Gordy Benjamin Morris, Ella Ireland Pigford, Marechal Elizabeth Sledge, Catherine Sinclair Turner and Katharine Grace Whatley.
The ball’s pages were Helen Caroline Abele, Julia Fletcher Abele, Harriet Huntress Crommelin Adams, Emily Browning Amason, Schuyler Allen Bradley Baker IV, Eloise Katherine Berte, Sara Frances Berte, Katherine Ellzabeth Brennan, Alice Caldwell Byars, Anne Carlton Clegg, Carole Elizabeth Clegg, Mary Patton Day, Isabelle Virginia DeBuys, Eleanor Elizabeth Edwards, Sarah Welles Edwards, Francis Eleanor Hagan, Caroline Bishop Hornsby, Sarah Colemn Hornsby, Sarah McCarty Huddle, Grace Shepard Hull, Valerie Bennett Lightfoot, Alice Alden Monk, Sarah Bibb Petznick, Gray Margaret Katherine Powell, Madeline Fay Stephens, Lauren Campbell Walston and Peter James White.
In 1966, James Mallory Kidd Jr. was in charge of the 11th Beaux Arts Jewel Ball for the Birmingham Museum of Art. Kidd noticed the decorations were discarded after the ball and saw a need for a support group with permanent costumes and decorations.
From there, the idea grew. More than 125 men joined as charter members, and the Beaux Arts Krewe was founded.
Westminster Abbey was the inspiration for the idea that each member would dress as a king, have a banner with a coat of arms and be attended by a page.
Many volunteers helped with preparations for the first ball. They cut, sewed, painted and glued. They created shields and banners and velvet capes. Those capes and banners are still being used today.
The Krewe makes a substantial contribution to the Birmingham Museum of Art each year.
