You may have missed the news that Ernie K-Doe, the "Emperor of the World" and the man behind such great New Orleans classics as "Mother-in-Law," has been running for mayor -- and is continuing to do so even though he failed to get enough votes to be in the runoff between incumbent Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu. It makes no difference to K-Doe. After all, he died nearly five years ago. But his widow, Antoinette K-Doe, put him in the race in part to make a statement, but mostly as a fund-raising effort for the Musician's Clinic.
Technically, as Antoinette explained it while giving a gumbo cooking demonstration this afternoon at the booth sponsored by seasonings company Zatarain's, it's the mannequin statue of Ernie she has that is running. The statue has had quite the life since its model passed, making public appearances and holding down the fort with Antoinette at the Mother-in-Law Lounge, the club Ernie founded and that she has maintained at 1500 N. Claiborne.
The statue kept her company back when she rode out the flood and storm upstairs at the club in August and September as five-and-a-half feet of water filled the downstairs.
"I was trapped seven-and-a-half days before being rescued by the National Guard," she said before the cooking demonstration. "I'm really glad I stayed. I save all the old pictures, and saved the statue. What I did was break it down in three pieces in a garbage bag and put it in the closet."
She thought about leaving it out to "watch over" the place, but was "afraid the National Guard would come in and think it was a real person and start shooting."
Since then, she's regularly cooked her gumbo in big batches to give free to people working and even just visiting around town. She served 600 bowls of it and red beans and rice at the Mid City Lanes "Rock 'n' Bowl" club/bowling alley on Wednesday. She has a strong desire to give back to her city, not in small part because she's receiving help herself. She and the Mother-in-Law were "adopted" by Hands On, the foundation started by rap/R&B star Usher, which is currently refurbishing the club. She says it could re-open in three weeks. Make sure when it does you go visit her -- and Ernie.
