Eli Watson Tullis, a cotton trader and philanthropist who reigned as Rex, king of Carnival, in 1997, died at his Garden District home on Tuesday of complications from a stroke, according to his daughter Rachael Gambel. It was the day before his 97th birthday.

Tullis was part of a mini-dynasty of Rex royalty. His father, Garner Hugh Tullis, was Rex in 1935, and a daughter, D. Ashbrooke Tullis, was queen of Carnival in 1988. A sister, Malcolm McCullough Tullis, was queen in 1938, and a cousin, Eli Tullis Watson, reigned as Rex in 1927.

A lifelong New Orleanian, Tullis graduated from Woodberry Forest School, a boarding school for boys in Woodberry Forest, Virginia.

“He found guidance at Woodberry Forest, people who believed in him and pushed him to be a better person … and steered him to t

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