THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Local legend connects Frenier Cemetery with Julia "Aunt Julie" Brown, who died on the same day the 1915 hurricane devastated the community. Later folklore claims that her spirit still appears around the cemetery and surrounding wetlands, although sensational stories portraying Brown as a voodoo priestess who cursed the town are not well supported historically.
Frenier Cemetery is one of the surviving remnants of the former Louisiana settlement of Frenier, which was devastated by the New Orleans Hurricane of September 29, 1915. Victims of the disaster were buried in the cemetery, creating a lasting connection between the site and one of the region's deadliest historical tragedies. Later folklore centers on resident Julia "Aunt Julie" Brown, a Black landowner remembered in local tradition for a song or warning supposedly predicting that the town would perish when she died. Brown died on the day of the hurricane. Modern retellings have frequently described her as a voodoo priestess who cursed Frenier, but historical research does not substantiate much of that characterization. Paranormal folklore nevertheless claims that Brown's apparition and other unexplained presences are encountered around the cemetery and surrounding Manchac wetlands.