In a gender swap of an overused fairy tale reference (our apologies), this year\u2019s Mardi Gras Parade\u00a0will see a Horned Frog \u2014 a TCU Horned Frog, at that \u2014 reign as Queen on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n
Named the 2026 Queen of Carnival by the Rex Organization, Kelsey Grace French, 21, is a New Orleans native who attended Isidore Newman School \u2014 alma mater of the Super Bowl quarterbacking Manning brothers \u2014 and is currently studying finance at TCU.<\/p>\n
French \u2014 quite the ideal name for a monarch of this parade \u2014 is a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the daughter of William French, a Rex lieutenant and historian of the organization, and the granddaughter of a former Rex Queen who reigned in 1959. That same year, French\u2019s grandfather also served as King.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rex organization truly has such a strong history in the city of New Orleans, and I\u2019m so excited that I get to be a part of that,\u201d\u00a0French told New Orleans\u2019 FOX 8 in an interview published yesterday.<\/p>\n
In addition to her studies at TCU, French, who looks to have a career in the financial sector, has already spent time studying at the London School of Economics and American University in Paris, as well as time working as an investment banking analyst in New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Considering the royal announcement\u00a0is on the front pages of multiple Big Easy media outlets, we naturally surmise French\u2019s ascension to Queen of Carnival to be one that far outweighs most court statuses in the United States \u2014 the Rose Parade\u2019s Queen of the Roses likely being the only one that exceeds the Rex Queen in national prominence.\u00a0Both the King and Queen of Carnival preside over the entire Mardi Gras celebration \u2014 not just a single float.<\/p>\n
According to Tulane University\u2019s deep dive into the archaeology of Mardi Gras, the day-time public parade will coincide with a formal, invitation-only ball that same evening, where the official presentation of Rex, his Queen, and eight maids and eight dukes, will occur. During her\u00a0interview with FOX 8, French\u00a0revealed her ball gown will include nods to the 2026 parade’s theme \u2014 Rebirth and Renewal \u2014 and her grandmother.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lilies and butterflies all over [the gown],” French says. “The lilies are actually lilies that we grow at our farm in Mississippi that I grow with my grandmother.”<\/p>\n
According to tradition, though the Queen is selected during the spring of the previous year \u2014 French found out after being read a poem by the organization’s president at a dinner in her honor \u2014\u00a0her identity is normally kept secret until Lundi Gras, which is the Monday preceding Fat Tuesday\u2019s Mardi Gras. This year, French’s announcement came on Valentine’s Day.<\/p>\n
The Rex Organization, also referred to as Krewe of the Rex, is an all-male organization that has staged more parades than any other in New Orleans. The King, also referred to as just \u201cRex,\u201d is one of the city\u2019s highest honors and is usually awarded to a local civic- and philanthropic-minded leader. His Queen, meanwhile, is typically a debutante from the current season with multi-generational roots within the organization.<\/p>\n
February 15, 2026<\/p>\n
7:22 PM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a gender swap of an overused fairy tale reference (our apologies), this year\u2019s Mardi Gras Parade\u00a0will see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15304,116,118,117,8164,28395,10985,67554,67302,853,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-166321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-brian-kendall","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","11":"tag-fort-worth-news","12":"tag-horned-frogs","13":"tag-mardi-gras","14":"tag-new-orleans","15":"tag-queen","16":"tag-queen-of-carnival","17":"tag-tcu","18":"tag-top-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}