CNNNew Orleans socialite Mickey Easterling wasn't going to let a little old thing like death get in the way of attending a party in her honor. Which is why she attended her wake, all dolled up with a boa and fancy hat, and propped up at the front of the room with a glass of champagne in hand.
Mickey died on April 14 ("Her family declined to release her age, noting she once said, ‘Age is a number, and mine's unlisted.'") and a thousand mourners were present during a final "jazzy soiree" at the Saenger Theater, where Mickey was, as usual, the center of attention.
"It's a really nice way to say, ‘The party's over.'" her daughter Nanci Myke Easterling told New Orlean's The Advocate. "She loved the limelight. She loved the attention. She was flamboyant. She had flair. She was outrageous."
As for her posthumous party look, Mickey's longtime friend and make-up artist, Sammy Steele III, says, "My goal was to make her look even prettier than she was in real life. Because she was a larger-than-life person."
Her obituary explains:
In New Orleans, Mickey was often seen out and about at parties, dinners, cultural and charitable events, and at New Orleans' finest restaurants. She was always dressed in the latest fashions, champagne or wine glass in one hand, cigarette holder in the other, flashing her trademark smile, and wearing one of her seemingly innumerable dramatically creative hats she was known for.
Which explains the party hat, the feathered boa, and the cigarette holder...
Her signature champagne glass...
("At some point in her life, she was carrying around her own champagne flutes because she didn't like the glasses some of the restaurants used," University of New Orleans prof Kenneth Holditch recalls.)
And our favorite touch: The diamond-studded "#1 BITCH" pin.
Which she clearly was. Mickey reportedly had an entire room in her house full of portraits of herself (including a naked sculpture of herself that holds up a glass table). She drove around with a trunk full of ice and champagne and stop by her friends. She tried to vacation in Monaco at least once a year.
Mickey was also a philanthropist and political activist. She worked on numerous boards and supported countless charities, her favorites being the St. Judes Hospital for Children and the Childrens Hospital of New Orleans.
Her friends, her family, and the entire city of NoLa say she will be missed.