“One day my friends and I came home, and she was down there doing, ‘Witches and goblins and ghoulies!’” Ms. Irvine said. “They were like, ‘What’s wrong with your mom?’”

Toombs did, however, lend her voice to the end of the ride at the California park, where a small spirit — lovingly called Little Leota by fans — ominously bids visitors adieu. When Toombs died, in 1991, Ms. Irvine’s visits to the ride with her own daughters gave them a chance to hear their grandmother’s voice again.

“I always had to laugh when we would be going up the exit escalator and seeing Little Leota over there going, ‘Hurry back,’” Ms. Irvine said. “And I’d go, ‘Girls, say hi to Grandma, there’s Grandma!’ and I’d hear people around me go, ‘What a weirdo.’”

When Disney decided to create an annual holiday-themed makeover for the Mansion, Imagineers needed to record a new incantation for Madame Leota in order to match the overlay. When they approached Ms. Irvine for the part, she was initially unsure — but she knew she didn’t want anyone else to do it either.

Now, every winter, she and her mother are both a part of the ride.

“I go out in the park in the morning before guests come in to check things out and look things over, and it’s so quiet out there in New Orleans before they turn on the music,” Ms. Irvine said. “But Little Leota never turns off. So to walk by the exit there and hear her little voice just talking away to me makes me smile.”