Mickey Easterling, a grande dame of New Orleans party-giving, died last week at 83. They had her memorial service at the Saenger Theater. She was there, on stage, embalmed, with her trademark cigarette holder, a glass of Champagne, red fingernails, and a pink feather boa. More about the life of the five-foot tall firecracker:

In a 1998 interview for The Times-Picayune, David Cuthbert wrote that the walls of Ms. Easterling’s home office were hung with portraits of herself by George Febres, Douglas Bourgeois, Jean-Jacques Giraud and Douglas Johnson. Out by the pool, Cuthbert said, was a nude sculpture that, Ms. Easterling said, was “the quintessential me – shoes, hat, cigarette and Champagne glass.”

For people who might not have known her, Ms. Easterling gave a hint to her saucy personality by frequently wearing a pin spelling out “#1 Bitch” in sparkling stones.

“Wearing that pin all the time was so my mother,” her daughter said. “She was proud of the fact that she was aggressive and in-your-face tough.”