of the feathers” to the next person to wear the headdress in Mardi Gras, as "Slacabamorinico, chief of the Chickasaw." The feathers were passed in 1970 to Fireman J.B. "Red" Foster who, attired in Plains Indian fashion, led the procession for 16 years. He then passed the feathers, tomahawk and peace pipe to author, historian, public relations, marketing professional and pastor, Bennett Wayne Dean Sr. in 1985. Old Slac IV "hisself" marked his 30th anniversary under the feathers during Joe Cain Day in 2015 noting that he "was just getting started." The feathers are always passed from "Chief to Chief" and it is his choice only - no other individual or any organization has any say in the selection of a new "Chief Slacabamorinico," a tradition unique to Mobile and its Mardi Gras. The impression that the celebration had on a couple of visitors from California resulted in Joe Cain Days being officially recognized, in 1993, as a sister celebration by the Joe Cain Society of California in Nevada City, California each Mardi Gras. The Mardi Gras mystic society of "Cain’s Merry Widows" (a women's mystic society) was founded in 1974 in Mobile, Alabama. Each Mardi Gras, on Joe Cain Day (the Sunday before Fat Tuesday), members of this society dress in funereal black with veils, lay a wreath at Cain’s burial site in Church Street Graveyard to wail over their “departed husband’s” grave, then travel to Joe Cain’s house on Augusta Street to offer a toast and eulogy to their “beloved Joe,“ continuously arguing over which widow was his favorite. See also Mardi Gras in Mobile - main article about Mobile's Mardi Gras festival. Cain's Merry Widows References External links Cain's Merry Widows Museum of Mobile, history timeline of Mardi Gras Mobile Chamber of Commerce, on Mardi Gras events (PDF file) Joe Cain Carnival and Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama People from Mobile, Alabama 1832 births 1904 deaths