Marie Laveau became the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans in the 1830s. There were many voodoo figures fighting over control of the secret ceremonies and rituals at the time, but when "Mamzelle" Laveau decided to become queen, the other ones faded before her, either by crumbling to her powerful gris-gris or being driven away by brute force. Marie also realised the sensational appeal those ceremonies must have had for the people not connected to voodoo, and made them public. Charging admission made voodoo profitable for the first time and her entrepreneurial efforts went even further by organising secret orgies for wealthy white men seeking beautiful black women for mistresses, which only strengthened her position in the city.

As Marie was always a truly devoted Catholic, she added influences of Catholicism, such as holy water, incense, statues of the saints, and Christian prayers, to the already sensational African spiritualism and religious concepts of voodoo. Eventually, Marie Laveau, with all of the religious knowledge, combined with her own considerable knowledge of spells along with her flair, became the most powerful woman in New Orleans.

On June 16, 1881, the New Orleans newspapers announced that Marie Laveau had died. At the same time, rumours of people seeing the Voodoo Queen after her demise occurred. The remarkably similar-looking woman with the same flashing black eyes and the ability to control lives was none other than her daughter, Marie Laveau Clapion, who emerged as Marie Laveau II.

It was never known whether her mother, Marie I, chose the role for her daughter, or whether Marie II chose the role to follow in her mother’s footsteps. What is known is that Marie continued operations at the "Maison Blanche" (White House), the house which her mother had built for secret voodoo meetings and liaisons between white men and black women. She was proclaimed to be an equally talented procuress, able to fulfil any man’s desires for a price, which she continued doing until her death, the date of which is uncertain, for supposedly she drowned in a big storm in Lake Pontchartrain in the 1890s, but some people claimed to have seen her as late as 1918.

A tomb in the St. Louis Cemetery, no. 1 bears the name of Marie Philome Clapion, deceased June 11, 1897 and is the meeting place for faithful practitioners who still leave gifts of food, money, and flowers, and ask for Marie's help after turning around three times and making a cross (or three crosses) with red brick on the stone. However, in the St. Louis Cemetery, no 2, there is another vault bearing the name of Marie Laveau. This vault has red crosses on it and is called the "wishing vault." Young women often come to it to petition when seeking husbands. Stories have it that Marie rests in various cemeteries in the city. Legend also tells that her ghost frequently visits the cemeteries and haunts the New Orleans French Quarter, where she used to live. She is mostly remembered, though, through the rituals on the banks of Bayou St. John held every June 23, St. John's Eve.