Queer Places:
1007 Lillian St, Metairie, LA 70001, USA
Metairie Cemetery, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70124, United States

Meigs Oliver Frost (June 26, 1882 - June 9, 1950) was born on June 26, 1882, in New Britain, Hartford County, Connecticut, to Howard Bishop Frost, a mechanical engineer, and Mary Emma Burgess Frost. Raised in Connecticut, he developed an early affinity for writing and journalism, embarking on a career that would make him one of the most celebrated print journalists and storytellers of the early-to-mid 20th century. In 1908, Frost married April Florence Theresa Doig of London, England, with whom he raised a family that included his son Burgess Murray "Punkey" Frost and his daughter, who later became Mrs. Douglas Reed Fleming.

Frost built an extraordinary reputation as a consummate "reporter’s reporter," earning widespread recognition for his vivid narrative style, fearless investigative work, and deep cultural immersion. Over the course of his dynamic career, he covered high-stakes criminal trials, political intrigues, and foreign revolutions across Central and South America. His dramatic dispatches from overseas conflicts and border skirmishes gained him national prominence, showcasing a keen eye for human detail and dramatic narrative intensity.

Moving to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1931, Frost became an indelible fixture of the local media landscape, most notably through his longstanding association with The Times-Picayune. He took up residence in the iconic French Quarter (Vieux Carré), quickly embedding himself in the neighborhood's bohemian art, literary, and social scenes. Living in the Quarter during a transformative period, Frost became a vital chronicler of the city's rich cultural life, covering everything from the fine arts and local colorful personalities to underground subcultures and high-profile crime beat stories.

Through his immersion in the French Quarter’s creative enclave, Frost intersected closely with the emerging LGBTQ+ artistic and literary networks of early 20th-century New Orleans. The Vieux Carré served as a rare haven for queer writers, visual artists, and unconventional figures during this era, and Frost's empathetic portraiture of the Quarter's diverse population provided essential visibility to marginalized communities that were largely ignored or demonized by mainstream press. His writings captured the distinctive spirit, Creole heritage, and fluid social boundary-crossing of the neighborhood.

Beyond his journalistic contributions, Frost served honorably in the military, eventually earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. He authored numerous short stories, pulp fiction tales, and non-fiction works, cementing his reputation as a master chronicler of Southern lore and historical narratives. Later in life, he settled in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, near his family's home at 1007 Lillian.

Lieutenant Colonel Meigs Oliver Frost passed away after a prolonged illness on the morning of Friday, June 9, 1950, at his Jefferson Parish home, just weeks shy of his 68th birthday. Following funeral services held at the House of Bultman on St. Charles Avenue, he was laid to rest in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, leaving behind a legacy as one of the Gulf Coast's definitive mid-century newspapermen and cultural historians.

In 1926 Pelican Bookshop Press, New Orleans, published "William Spratling and William Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles: A Gallery of Contemporary New Orleans", issued in 250 copies. The “Famous Creoles” (with ages in 1926) were

• Conrad Albrizio, 27, New York-born, serious artist, Spratling’s neighbor, Arts and Crafts Club stalwart
• Sherwood Anderson, 50, “Lion of the Latin Quarter,” eminence gris, generous to respectful younger writers (LGBTQ friendly)
• Marc Antony and Lucille Godchaux Antony, both 28, Love-match between heiress and lower-middle-class boy, local artists
• Hamilton “Ham” Basso, 22, Star-struck recent Tulane grad, aspiring writer, good dancer (LGBTQ friendly)
• Charles “Uncle Charlie” Bein, 35, Director of Arts and Crafts Club’s art school; lived with mother, sister, and aunt (GAY)
• Frans Blom, 33, Danish archeologist of Maya, Tulane professor, colorful resident of Quarter
• Roark Bradford, 30, Newspaperman, jokester, hit pay dirt with Negro dialect stories
• Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis, 45, Tulane architecture professor, preservationist, recorded old buildings
• Albert Bledsoe Dinwiddie, 55, President of Tulane, Presbyterian
• Marian Draper, 20, Ziegfeld Follies alum, Tulane cheerleader, prize-winning architecture student
• Caroline “Carrie” Wogan Durieux, 30, Genuine Creole, talented artist living in Cuba and Mexico, painted by Rivera
• William “Bill” Faulkner, 29, Needs no introduction, but wrote the one to Famous Creoles (LGBTQ friendly)
• Flo Field, 50, French Quarter guide, ex-journalist, sometime playwright, single mother
• Louis Andrews Fischer, 25, Gender-bending Mardi Gras designer, named for her father (LGBTQ friendly)
• Meigs O. Frost, 44, Reporter’s reporter; lived in Quarter; covered crime, revolutions, and arts
• Samuel Louis “Sam” Gilmore, 27, Greenery-yallery poet and playwright, from prominent family (GAY)
• Moise Goldstein, 44, Versatile and successful architect, preservationist, active in Arts and Crafts Club
• Weeks Hall, 32, Master of and slave to Shadows-on-the-Teche plantation, painter, deeply strange (GAY)
• Ronald Hargrave, 44, Painter from Illinois formerly active in Quarter art scene, relocated to Majorca
• R. Emmet Kennedy, 49, Working-class Irish boy, collected and performed Negro songs and stories
• Grace King, 74, Grande dame of local color literature and no-fault history, salonnière
• Alberta Kinsey, 51, Quaker spinster, Quarter pioneer, indefatigable painter of courtyards
• Richard Ray Kirk, 49, Tulane English professor and poet, loyal Michigan Wolverine alumnus
• Oliver La Farge, 25, New England Brahmin, Tulane anthropologist and fiction-writer, liked a party
• Harold Levy, 32, Musician who ran family’s box factory, knew everybody, turned up everywhere
• Lillian Friend Marcus, 35, Young widow from wealthy family, angel and manager of Double Dealer (LGBTQ friendly)
• John “Jack” McClure, 33, Poet, newspaper columnist and reviewer, Double Dealer editor, bookshop owner
• Virginia Parker Nagle, 29, Promising artist, governor’s niece, Arts and Crafts Club teacher
• Louise Jonas “Mother” Nixon, 70, A founder of Le Petit Theatre and its president-for-life, well-connected widow
• William C. “Cicero” Odiorne, 45, Louche photographer, Famous Creoles’ Paris contact (GAY)
• Frederick “Freddie” Oechsner, 24, Recent Tulane graduate, ambitious cub reporter, amateur actor
• Genevieve “Jenny” Pitot, 25, Old-family Creole, classical pianist living in New York, party girl
• Lyle Saxon, 35, Journalist, raconteur, bon vivant, host, preservationist, bachelor (GAY)
• Helen Pitkin Schertz, 56, Clubwoman, civic activist, French Quarter guide, writer, harpist
• Natalie Scott, 36, Journalist, equestrian, real-estate investor, Junior Leaguer, social organizer (LGBTQ friendly)
• William “Bill” Spratling, 25, Famous Creoles illustrator, Tulane teacher, lynchpin of Quarter social life (GAY)
• Keith Temple, 27, Australian editorial cartoonist, artist, sometimes pretended to be a bishop
• Fanny Craig Ventadour, 29, Painter, Arts and Crafts Club regular, lately married and living in France
• Elizebeth Werlein, 39, Suffragette with colorful past, crusading preservationist, businessman’s widow
• Joseph Woodson “Pops” Whitesell, 50, Photographic jack-of-all-trades, French Quarter eccentric, inventor (GAY)
• Daniel “Dan” Whitney, 32, Arts and Crafts Club teacher, married (two) students, beauty pageant judge
• Ellsworth Woodward, 65, Artistic elder statesman, old-fashioned founder of Newcomb art department

References:

Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History) Paperback – September 8, 2014 by John Shelton Reed

Other references:

• The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Obituary: "Lt. Col. Meigs O. Frost, Author, Journalist, Dies At Home Here," June 10, 1950.
• The New Orleans Item, History and Description of the Now Lost City of Balize, Louisiana (1921), original feature series and historical coverage.
• The New Orleans States, "Champagne Christened Her Despite Prohibition: Use 'Bootleg' Champagne to Christen Ship" (April 4, 1939).
• FamilySearch Historical Records Collection
• Vital Statistics: Connecticut Births and Christenings (1649–1906) for New Britain, CT.
• U.S. Federal Censuses: 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, and 1950 Federal Censuses (Louisiana & Jefferson Parish).
• Marriage Records: State of Virginia / District of Columbia Marriage Registrations (1907/1908 marriage to April Florence Theresa Doig).
• Cemetery Records, Metairie Cemetery Burial Registry and Memorial Documentation (New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana).
• Frost, Meigs Oliver, and Miller, Frederic DeJoly. A Marine Tells It to You. New York: J.H. Sears & Company, 1929. (Narrative account based on the experiences of Marine Colonel Frederic Wise).
• Frost, Meigs Oliver. Short stories, pulp fiction contributions, and syndicated feature articles published across national magazines (including Adventure, Blue Book, and The Saturday Evening Post) during the 1920s–1940s.
• Frost, John Eldridge. The Nicholas Frost Family. (Genealogical reference detailing the descendants and family lines of Howard Bishop Frost and Meigs Oliver Frost).

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