New Orleans Man Gets Skull and Bone Gang Funeral Procession

Cool story. (see more pics at the link)

The Northside Skull and Bone Gang led a funeral procession through the Treme neighborhood on Tuesday for Chief Albert Morris, who died last week at 67.

Without Morris, the gang would have likely disappeared altogether. As a young man, Morris had learned how to craft the oversize skulls and hand-drawn bone suits from "Big Arthur," an older Bone Man. In recent years, Morris handed down the traditions to Second Chief Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes and a group of others who revived the Northside gang. Early every Mardi Gras morning, accompanied a percussion crew on drums and tambourines, the Bone Men walk through the neighborhoods carrying big ham bones and shouting "Wake up!" or "You next!"

The Treme Brass Band played a special dirge in Morris' honor in front of a Villere Street building that used to be home to LaPearl's hair salon, a social hub of the neighborhood run by Morris' mother.

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