Biloxi, MS

Interviewee Sort ascending Collection Description Interviewer Date of Interview Location of Interview Affiliation
Leroy Duvall Ethnicity in the Seafood Industry on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

When Leroy Duvall refers to himself as one of the younger people, it's despite his 64 years, but it's without a trace of irony. Part of it is that he is the President of the Fleur de Lis Society, a club half the size of what it once was because its membership is slowly passing from old age. And part of it is that, after 30 years of shrimping on the Gulf, his body still feels young. Eventually, the economic repercussions of endangered turtles forced him to retire from shrimping, and when Hurricane Katrina washed away his bakery, he retired from that, too. Mr.

Francis Lam Biloxi, MS Southern Foodways Alliance
Kim Hai Dinh Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Kim Dai Dinh is a Vietnamese-American, living in East Biloxi, who worked in seafood processing plants.

Linda VanZandt, Angel Truong Phan Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Khang Dang Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Khang V. Dang is a Vietnamese-American shrimper living in Biloxi, Mississippi. Mr. Khang V. Dang was born April 20, 1954, one of eleven children, in the port city of Vung Tau in southern Vietnam. Mr. Dang’s parents originated from the Go Cong district in the Mekong Delta region. He learned fishing and net making from his father and grandfather; his mother cooked and baked and sold her goods, along with fish and shrimp, in the market. Mr. Dang joined the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in 1971, serving as security for his home area of Vung Tau until 1975. Mr.

Linda VanZandt, Angel Truong Phan Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Joseph D. Jewell Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Joseph D. Jewel (b. 1957) is deputy director of the Office of Marine Fisheries at the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. He was born in 1959 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the small fishing community in east Biloxi known as the Point. His parents were Mr. Thomas Jewell and Mrs. Betty Jane Seymour Jewell. He was the second son in a family of six sons and one daughter. Following the return of his parents to his father’s ancestral home in Oregon, Joe was raised by his maternal grandparents in a commercial fishing family.

Barbara Hester Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Hoa Thi Pham Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mrs. Hoa Thi Pham is a Vietnamese-American living in Biloxi, Mississippi, who made nets for a living in her native land, Vietnam.  She was born in 1953 in Duc Pho, South Vietnam. In 1966 she went to live temporarily with her grandfather’s brother in Vung Tau to be protected from the dangerous fighting in her home region. Mrs. Pham’s father grew rice and potatoes on their farm and her mother had a convenience store. Mrs. Pham had one younger brother. She married Mr. Luu Thai, a shrimper who was from her village. Mrs.

Linda VanZandt, Angel Truong Phan Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Hang Nguyen Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mrs. Hang Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American, the wife of a shrimper, and a resident of East Biloxi, Mississippi. She was the only child of Binh Nguyen and Nhung Nguyen, born in 1968 in Can Tho, South Vietnam. Her father, who passed away in Seattle, Washington in 2009, served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese Army). Her mother worked in the home. After the fall of South Vietnam, Mrs. Nguyen’s father was sent to reeducation camp. It was then that her mother had to go to work selling fish, coffee, and fabrics in different places.

Linda VanZandt, Angel Truong Phan 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
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
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
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