Toups was born on April 25, 1928, in
Meridian, Mississippi, to Arthur Hodgin and Mary Ellen Killing. She moved to
New Orleans in 1968. Toups was married to Albert Toups, a
Cajun who was a high-ranking
Freemason and ran a bar on
Decatur Street. On February 2, 1972, she chartered the Religious Order of Witchcraft, the first coven to be registered as an official religious organization within the state of Louisiana. The order, which often gathered at Popp Fountain in
City Park, practiced Western
ceremonialist magic, not
Afro-Caribbean rooted practices like
voodoo and
hoodoo that are commonly associated with New Orleans. Later in 1972, Toups caught the attention of writer Howard Jacobs, who wrote about her in his column
Remoulade, after she publicly defended witchcraft when the practice had been blamed for a murder in
Opelousas. Toups also published the occult text
Magick High and Low in 1975. Toups died in September 1981 of
stomach cancer. == Legacy ==