On June 16, 2010 Monet Murphy interviewed Annie Lee Thorpe as part of the Georgia Black Fishermen oral history project. Annie was the seventh of eight children, born in 1923 in Mayport, Florida. She recalls that her family structure changed when she was 12, after the death of her mother. She then moved to Savannah to live with her older sister; however, she was unable to complete her primary education due to her sister’s illness. Soon after, Annie married James Joseph “Joe” Thorpe, one of the few African American shrimp boat captains in Savannah.