Biloxi, MS

Interviewee Sort descending Collection Description Interviewer Date of Interview Location of Interview Affiliation
Clyde Leslie Brown Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Clyde Leslie Brown was born July 1, 1932, in Pecan, Mississippi, to Nathaniel Richard Brown (born November 22, 1901, in Canoe, Alabama) and Mary Edna Stork Brown (born February 28, 1906, in Pecan, Mississippi). His father was a farmer who ran a general store in Canoe, Alabama, and his mother was a housewife. His mother’s father was a commercial fisherman in Jackson County, Mississippi, who ran a general store in Pecan, Mississippi. On September 4, 1955, he married Annie Marie Jones.

Barbara Hester Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Corky Hire Ethnicity in the Seafood Industry on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Corky Hire may have had an inauspicious beginning to his shrimping career, taking over for his ailing father, but now 70 years later, his memories of working the Gulf are almost all fond ones. His time on boats, through the 30's and 40's, was during a time when Biloxi's seafood industry was growing tremendously and ail schooners were being replaced by powered boats, and Croatian families were making the shift from immigrant laborers to cannery owners and professionals.

Francis Lam Biloxi, MS Southern Foodways Alliance
Daniel Quan Nguyen Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Reverend Daniel Quan Nguyen was born, one of five children, on July 15, 1941, in Tay Ninh Province (east of Saigon), South Vietnam. His parents were farmers and his father died when he was just a year old. Reverend Nguyen attended high school and university in Saigon, studying science and law, then becoming a high school math teacher. From 1968 to 1975, he served as an infantry commander in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese Army). He was stationed with the Fourth Battalion Regiment of the Seventh Division in the Mekong Delta.

Linda VanZandt, Angel Truong Phan Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
David Burrage Turtle Excluder Device Oral Histories

David Burrage was born January 7, 1953 in Hampton, Virginia. He attended Old Dominion University where he received a science degree then attended University of Rhode Island for his graduate studies in Marine Affairs. He works with the Sea Grant Extension Program in Mississippi and is an Extension Professor.

Stephanie Scull-DeArmey Biloxi, MS Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, University of Southern Mississippi
Donald Baker Turtle Excluder Device Oral Histories

Interview with Donald Baker, born on October 2, 1939 on Deer Island, Mississippi.  Baker is a shrimp fisherman who speaks about his use of TEDs, changes in the shrimping industry, equipment, fishing techniques and procedures, business aspects of operating a vessel. Other Topics: Hurricane Camille of 1947, growing up on coast, prices of fuel and supplies, profits, fish species, fisheries management

Stephanie Scull-DeArmey Biloxi, MS Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, University of Southern Mississippi
Earl W. Ross Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Earl Ross is a commercial shrimper in the Gulf of Mexico. Ross was born on December 13, 1947, in Biloxi, Mississippi, to Mr. Wildon Ross (born April 22, 1922, in Biloxi) and Mrs. Ruth Wallis Ross) born September 27, 1929). His father was a police officer, taxicab owner, and shrimper in Biloxi. His mother was a bookkeeper. His father’s family were shrimpers who owned local businesses, including grocery stores, clothing stores, and taxicabs. His mother’s family were shrimpers and bakers. On November 17, 1968, he married his wife, Charlene (born December 14, 1947).

Barbara Hester Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Edmund Anthony Boudreaux, Jr. Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Edmond Anthony Boudreaux Jr. was born in 1949 to Edmond Boudreaux Sr. and Nita Mae Thomas Boudreaux. He is the third of eight children. He is married to Virginia L. Bertucci Boudreaux, and they have three sons, Edmond Boudreaux III, Brandon Boudreaux, and Marcus Boudreaux. Boudreaux is a 1967 graduate of Notre Dame High School in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was an AT&T service technician from 1973 until 2010, when he retired.

Stephanie Scull-DeArmey , Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Frank Parker Ethnicity in the Seafood Industry on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Even in a town like Biloxi, it's not often someone can claim seven generations of fishing heritage. The line in Frank Parker's family may have stopped at six when his parents pushed him to go to college and consider other lines of work, but the years of growing up playing on the dock had him pretty well convinced he was going to go back out onto the Gulf. So at 24 years old, 12 credits shy of graduating, Frank decided to listen to the sirens and bought himself a boat. The funny thing, though, is that his parents listened to them too.

Francis Lam Biloxi, MS Southern Foodways Alliance
Franklin Lance Parker Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Frank Parker is a lifelong commercial fisherman in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was born on July 4, 1973, in Biloxi, Mississippi, to Mr. Olin Boyce Parker (born April 13, 1944, in Pascagoula, Mississippi) and Mrs. Velma Elaine Terry Parker (born January 26, 1945). His father was a fisherman and a furniture refinisher from 1964 to 1999. His father’s family were farmers in the Mississippi Delta. His mother was a homemaker. His mother’s family were watermen, including fishermen, ship captains, and ship pilots.

Stephanie Scull-DeArmey Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
George Trojanovich Ethnicity in the Seafood Industry on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Georgo Trojanovich is, as he says, "The only real Croatian in Biloxi." But in a city as proud as this one is of its Croatian heritage, everyone here knows what he means: with the arrival of Croatian families tailing off by the second half of the 20th century, Georgo is one of the few - yes, perhaps only - Croatian-born immigrants in town. A distant relative of a local restaurateur, Georgo came as a teenager to escape Tito's Communist regime, working as a dishwasher at Mary Mahoney's restaurant.

Francis Lam Biloxi, MS Southern Foodways Alliance