Profile 2013

FAMILY TIES THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

Roots run deep for Kaisers, Eidts in Mississippi, Natchez

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n the mid-1800s Natchez was booming. More millionaires lived in the town, per capita, than in nearly any other place in the United States. Prosperity drew notables from across the country to Natchez, but it also drew the eye of two young German immigrants looking to become two of those millionaires.

Joseph William Kaiser and William Eidt came from different parts of Germany — Kaiser from Bayern, and Eidt from Durkheim — but managed to somehow meet in Natchez and form a friendship.

Kaiser soon met a young girl named Caroline Deniger, who was living in a convent in New Orleans with her sister, Catherine.

The couple soon married, but Caroline did not want to leave her sister alone in New Orleans and began shopping for a suitable German mate for her to marry.

That German mate was William Eidt, and he married Catherine before the couple bore 11 children — the same number as the Kaisers.

Clearly, it did not take long for the names Kaiser and Eidt to become two of the most prevalent names in Natchez.

Today, 170 years later, Eidts and Kaisers still populate Natchez, and the family tree spreads its branches so wide that it’s difficult to find someone that is not in some way related to Joseph Wil-

liam Kaiser or William Eidt.

“You can’t shake a tree in Natchez without an Eidt falling out,” said Joe Eidt, the great-grandson of William.

It also did not take long for the Eidts and Kaisers, as well as the Byrne, Hicks, Beesley and other families that stemmed from the original forefathers to start making a name for themselves in Natchez and shaping the development of the city.

Along with a number of family businesses, the Kaiser family found its way into politics, family genealogist Carolyn Vance Smith said.

“We are a public service family,” Smith said. “We’ve had two mayors and a Mississippi senator.”

Smith, who married into the family when she married William Marion Smith — the great-grandson of Joseph William Kaiser — said the branches of the Kaiser family tree have so many twists and turns that it was difficult to bring everything together in a genealogy.

The great-grandchildren of William Eidt and their spouses, back row, Andrew Eidt and his wife Laura, Sammy Eidt and his wife Patricia, Arthur Eidt and his wife Carolyn, Ken Beesley and his wife Sue, Walter Beesley and his wife Delilah and Phyllis Barrett, kneeling in front, gathered for a photo in 2010.

story by Justin Whitmore

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THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

HISTORY Morgan preserves knowledge of community brick by brick

Story by Cain Madden Photos by Ben Hillyer

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uncan Morgan once went 40 years without spending the night outside of Natchez.

In his 65 years as a local bricklayer, he has only taken two vacations.

He lives on the same ground where his grandfather’s grandmother was born, prior to 1830.

“I think I qualify as ‘old Natchez,’” Morgan said.

Others agree, and have come to rely on Morgan as a fountain of Natchez history.

At age 81, Morgan has seen plenty and remembers nearly all of it, Historic Natchez Foundation Executive Director Mimi Miller said.

“To give you an idea of what he knows, one time, he was in my office, and he said, ‘You messed up the Serkosky family,”’ Miller said.

“I said, ‘I did?’

“He said, ‘Yes. You have the children identified with the wrong father.’

“I said, ‘They were living with them in the

census in 1900.’

“He said, ‘Yes, but that is because their father had died.’

“The next day, he took me to the cemetery to show me that their father was dead by that time.”

Of course, Morgan himself wasn’t born when the man died. He just knows Natchez.

Preserving memories

Most recently, Miller used Morgan’s memory to craft much of what will soon be on display as part of phase two of the Natchez Trails Project. The phase highlights the history of St. Catherine Street.

“He could tell me who lived in the houses on the street, even if they had not lived there for 100 years,” Miller said.

Morgan says the memories come from his grandfather’s lessons.

“I guess I learned a lot by osmosis from my grandfather,” Morgan said. “My grandfather, as one old man in Natchez told me, knew everybody and everybody’s dog in Natchez.

Local bricklayer Duncan Morgan, facing page, oversees the construction of a brick pier at the antebellum house Elms Court. The pier and a gate were damaged in the winds of Tropical Storm Isaac. At top, Morgan in his signature hat checks to make sure the bricks and gate line up.

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14 PROFILE 2013

he said he has enjoyed brickwork more so than he feels he would have enjoyed teaching math to young people.

“I’ve never traveled to see it, but in Rome, the viaducts, (that’s) brick that has stood for over 2,000 years,” Morgan said. “Or if you go up inside the steeple of St. Mary, you see all of those heavy timbers and all that were pulled up there with mule power.

“You have a respect and almost an awe for the structures that you are working on. And if you maintain that, it gives you a sense of perspective.”

Buildings aren’t built that way anymore, he said.

“I’m appalled when they talk about these schools and the jail,” Morgan said. “They Hands-on preservation are obsolete, and they But Morgan does more Natchez bricklayer Duncan Morgan and his crew take the old brick from the property surroundthan remember old Natchez. ing the antebellum house Elms Court to replace a brick pier that was heavily damaged by a tree are 30 years old.”

Morgan, an active He literally, brick by brick, that fell during Tropical Storm Isaac. Morgan has been a bricklayer for 65 years and is considmember at Holy Famipreserves it. ered to be a fount of knowledge for local historians and community leaders. ly Catholic Church, has Morgan is in his 65th year been a lifelong bacheof laying bricks and comes lor, and that is another decision he does not en Jubilee of a Holy Family Catholic Church from a family of bricklayers that dates back regret. nun who he had known since he was in the to 1890.

“That allowed me to devote myself to the seventh grade.

He reluctantly will talk about a sense of things that I was interested in around NatHe left Thursday morning, the celebration pride for his work — work that can be seen chez, and the buildings and history, and with was on Friday and he was back by Saturday at almost any of the historic buildings in NatHoly Family Church and the school,” Morat 3 p.m., though he does regret not taking chez, including, most notably to him, in the gan said. more time to see San Antonio, where the jurestoration of Texada. bilee was celebrated.

“It was something, that if you ever saw picOld Natchez And retiring? tures of it, before and after, you would wonder Morgan keeps old Natchez alive each day “People always ask me, ‘When do I expect how in the world anybody would ever think in his mind and with his hands. to retire?” Morgan said. “And I tell them, ‘I about salvaging that, but Dr. (George) and And that, Miller said, is what makes Morhave a plot in the Natchez City Cemetery that Mrs. Moss did,” Morgan said. “Still, when I gan a local treasure all his own.

I hope to retire to,” he said with a laugh. look at buildings like that, there is a sense “If I had to make a list of the people I most of pride.” admire in Natchez, Duncan would be right Personal mortars He will only talk about pride as an impornear the top,” Miller said. “It is the way he It may be surprising that Morgan was not tant component of being a good bricklayer, conducts his life, and the way he conducts always going to be a brick mason — he went to simultaneously questioning if his pride is a his business. college at Xavier University in New Orleans virtue or a vice.

“He is a fascinating man — he thinks there to study math for a year, primarily because Regardless of how great other people, inis no better place to be than Natchez.” his father did not want him to lay brick for cluding Miller and her husband, Ron, think At the end of the day, the city is what is a living. his work has been in restoring the antebellum important to him, not himself or his own acWhile he was on the dean’s list, he only houses of Natchez, Morgan said he always complishments. stayed in school one year due to a tragedy just did what he was supposed to do.

“I’ve never been — and this might sound back home.

“I was always told as a child that brick was foolish — but I’ve never been concerned about “He fell that summer on the Arcade Theso permanent, that you are going to look at it making a lot of money,” Morgan said. “I’ve atre in Ferriday and broke his back and died,” again and again, so, don’t ever do anything always felt that I wanted to offer something, Morgan said of his father, who died of pneuthat you are ashamed of,” Morgan said. “And not just be grasping for more. monia a few days after the accident. “I was that has been my guiding focus.”

“I’ve always wanted to do something to there working on the job, and I just stayed He continues to lay bricks today, and his be involved, and hopefully to make Natchez on.” only two vacations were decades ago — once when I’m gone a little better place than it was Morgan said he does not regret staying in 1958 and again in 1990 to celebrate the Goldwhen I came.” home to take care of his mother and sisters, as “He had a ’33 Dodge, and we drove about 8-10 miles per hour, and going through town we were talking about this one, and so and so’s house.”

Thanks to his interest in history, Morgan has served on not only the Historic Natchez Foundation Board, where he was the president in 1995 and is a current board member, but also the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Board.

“He was a very valuable board member because he understood a lot about the actual process of historic preservation, what it meant to go in and renovate a historic building because of his deep experience with historic buildings in Natchez,” said Kane Ditto, president of the archives and history board. “I can’t imagine a more ideal board member for archives and history.”

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

OFFICE BUDDIES

Many eyes keep watch over visitors to Adams County office The office of the late Frank Junkin is covered with animal trophies of all shapes and size. The animal heads are from the many trips Junkin took in the mid-1980s.

Bottom left, Junkin’s daughter, Ellen Junkin Saunders, talks on the phone to a customer as a leopard reclines in the background.

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18 PROFILE 2013 Story by JUSTIN WHITMORE Photos by Ben Hillyer

Ellen Junkin Saunders talks on the telephone in her home office surrounded by trophies from the many safaris and hunting expeditions her father Frank Junkin took in the mid-1980s. Also on the walls are pictures of Ellen’s father in front of some of his favorite kills, including a elephant, above. The animal heads that surround visitors to the Junkin office include a large bull moose, at right, and other animals from across the world.

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he faces that line the walls of the late Frank Junkin’s home office have the ability to overwhelm and even intimidate anyone seeing them for the first time.

Sure, there are a few of the standard eight-point bucks that can be found in trophy rooms across the Miss-Lou, but a full take of the room reveals much more, and Junkin had to travel the world to bring home most of his prizes.

In the mid-1980s Junkin, along with his friend David New of Natchez, took two trips to Africa, and to say that the two had success on their hunting safaris is an understatement.

“Dad had hunted for years, but he eventually took it up to the next level,” Frank “Buster” Junkin Jr. said.

The heads of an eland, impala and kudu along with several other horned animals are the first African game guests see when they step into the office, but the real prize is tucked away in the back corner of the office where the “Big Five” reside.

The heads of a male lion, a rhinoceros and a Cape buffalo stare out over the room from behind two large desks. Those heads are accompanied by the full-body mount of a leopard, while the tusks of an African elephant surround a leather chair in one corner of the office. All the kills were legal to hunt at the time.

It took Frank nearly two years to compile all of his trophies and get them up on the wall the right way, and soon after he finished in 1986, he died. But the trophy room still serves as an office for Buster and his sister, Ellen, and a great source of pride, Buster said.

“I can’t imagine anybody wanting to try to shoot an elephant,” he said. “But dad enjoyed the challenges, and they split all the meat up with (the villagers) and fed a lot of people for a long time. I appreciate it and enjoy it.”

Buster and Ellen have spent so much time in the office — which is now part of Ellen’s house — over the past quarter century that the heads on the walls do not phase them much, but Ellen said people who are seeing the room for the first or second time say that the eyes on the wall have the ability to intimidate.

Frank’s hunting days began more modestly in Adams County with the traditional game of the Miss-Lou, and his favorite hunting experience always remained quail.

“Dad was a quail hunter,” Buster said. “He loved to quail hunt with dogs. He loved watching the dogs work.”

Buster learned to hunt from his father, and Ellen also hunted, but somewhat reluctantly, she said.

“Buster loved it. I didn’t,” she said.

When he got older, Buster had some great hunting experiences with his father in Canada, Alaska and across North America, he said.

“He was always a better shot than I was,” Buster said. “Around here, young kids got into hunting quite naturally. He taught me when I was 6, 7 or 8 years old. I just enjoyed being with him. Our best trips were to Alaska, and Cuba was a good trip.”

Buster did not make the Africa trip, and the details of some of the stories are somewhat fuzzy to Frank’s children, but one story stands out, Ellen said.

After killing his rhinoceros, Frank’s guide left Frank to stand by the massive carcass and wait for him to go get the vehicle. While standing watch, several of the rhino’s herd came back to the body, and Frank did some quick thinking and climbed a small tree nearby, Ellen said. Ellen has a photo of this incident that shows Frank at the top of a very small tree, with rhinos down below, and she said it is one of her favorite photos of her father.

But in the end, Frank made it home without injury from his hunting excursions, and the collection of trophies he brought with him still has the ability to impress his children today.

“It is a real accomplishment, but that’s not all that he was,” Ellen said.

Of all the impressive trophies, Ellen said the leopard is her favorite, but also the most obnoxious. The leopard lies perched over her desk, and sometimes she will get caught on its claws, she said.

For Frank, however, it is the giant moose that his father killed that remains his favorite trophy, because he was there with him on that hunt and got a moose of his own.

In addition to the heads, Frank kept a variety of other trophies from his African trips. Those include ashtrays made from rhino feet and hides from a variety of different African animals including lions and zebras.

Buster hung up his big-game hunting boots when his father died, but the experience was never really about accumulating trophies for him, he said.

“I just went more with him, I really just enjoyed that we went together for each trip we hunted on,” Buster said.

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

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STEP STEP by

Life filled with many lessons for parents, children

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t literally begins with one step at a time. From the moment they are born, maybe even before, babies are learning life’s important lessons.

In a lifetime there are many learning opportunities and mom and dad are usually not far behind. Here is a look at just a few of those moments happening every day for parents and their children in the Miss-Lou. From the moment they are born to well past when they leave the house, children are always learning life lessons from their parents. Macy Carter, top left, is learning how to walk. Nella Gardner, top right, is learning how to sew from her mother Tammi Gardner. Isis Terrell was getting her first taste of riding a bike without training wheels. Chisum Mardis, bottom right, can’t wait to get his driver’s license.

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alking may be as easy as putting one foot in front of the other, but for Macy Carter it was one of the most difficult lessons she has learned in her short life. It won’t be the most difficult lessons Macy’s parents Mark and Jessica Carter will have to teach their daughter. With a little practice moving between mom and dad’s arms each days, 1-yearold Macy continues to gain confidence and coordination.

Soon, walking will be complete and Macy will move to one of the many other lessons that await.

Macy barely hangs on to her mother’s hand to keep balance while she prepares to walk from her mother’s arms to her dad’s arms.

Macy, at left, looks at her father’s outstretched arms. The 1-year-old, above, has been using the family’s furniture to maneuver around the house. Walking can’t be far behind.

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

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t may have only been three quick turns of the pedal and a little more than eight feet, but for 5-year-old Isis Terrell the small distance she pedaled her bike without training wheels was huge. It was just the first day her Aunt Sheketta pushed Isis toward freedom, and, other than those eight feet, the afternoon on the Holy Family Early Learning Center playground was filled with wobbles and bobbles. But, Isis felt two-wheeled bliss for a few seconds and knew her biking days are not far behind.

Sheketta Terrell lets go of her niece Isis Terrell’s bicycle seat as she keeps pedaling on the Holy Family Learning Center playground. Isis kept pedaling for approximately eight feet before have to put her feet down on the ground to prevent a crash. Even though she wore her sporty pink and blue gloves, elbow pads and knee pads, at far right, Isis still felt a little uncomfortable riding her bike for the first time. At center, Isis stops her bike on her tip toes to keep herself from falling. At right, Sheketta reaches for her niece as she loses her balance.

Isis Terrell watches as the training wheels of her bike are taken off for the first time.

Isis mastered her training wheels and was both excited and scared to learn how to ride without them.

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on’t be surprised if you see Nella Gardner making high fashion on the reality TV show “Project Runway.” The child of Tammi and David Gardner is full of confidence when it comes to most everything in life, including sewing. Tammi has been teaching her 6-year-old how to sew on a button and the basics of using a sewing machine. She may only be a few weeks into her fashion career, but Nella has no doubt the a spotlit runway will be in her near future.

Tammi Gardner, above, watches as her daughter Nella sews on a flat button.

The most difficult part of sewing for both mother and daughter may be threading the needle. At far right, Tammi laughs as she tries to push the thread through the needle’s eye.

At center, Nella checks for blood after a quick stab of the needle. At left, Tammi helps Nella guide the thread into the needle.

Nella Gardner, at far left, pulls the thread so high that she almost pulls it out of the needle.

At left, Nella concentrates at the sewing machine as she tries to sew a straight line.

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

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hisum Mardis can’t wait until he gets his new driver’s license. He has been counting the days until he can take his driving test. Since Chisum got his permit, his mother Jackie has been teaching him the basics of driving. On the day Jackie taught him how to parallel park on Broadway Street in downtown Natchez, Chisum was exactly 111 days away from the day most every teen dreams of — driving out of the family driveway without mom or dad. With almost machine-like precision, Chisum backed the family SUV into a spot between two cars following his mother’s directions the entire time.

Jackie Mardis, above, explains to her son the basics of how to parallel park. At right, Chisum looks behind him as his mother watches in the sideview mirror. At left, Chisum slowly creeps the family car backward until it moves into the correct place.

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Chisum Mardis, at left, makes a hard turn into a parallel parking space on Broadway Street in Natchez during one of his driving lessons with his mother Jackie. Chisum, below, turns around to keep an eye on the parking spot.

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Remains of royalty Former Mississippi River queen sits in Deer Park landscape

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

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he was once a queen of the Mississippi River, serving as both a luxury liner and a civil servant with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And even though she’s listed as a registered “historic place,” even today she still moves around.

But most of the time, the Mamie S. Barrett just sits on the ground in Deer Park, La., a ghost that rises with the spring flood, bumps against her tethers and then falls back to rest with the receding water.

And even though she isn’t making a lot of noise or getting much publicity these days, the Barrett has a cult following among river captains and steamboat enthusiasts.

“There aren’t a whole lot of those old steamboats left, and people are just hopeful that it can be saved,” steamboat historian Keith Norrington said.

“I had an article in The Waterways Journal about it, and then people started making pilgrimages down there to see it.”

Gaps in the history of the steamboat remain unfilled, but what is known is how she got to what is in all likelihood her final resting spot.

Vidalia Dock and Storage Owner Carla Jenkins said the boat was first brought to the Miss-Lou in 1995, when someone — A “Mr. Williams” whose records with Vidalia Dock and Storage were destroyed in a fire — had it towed to the riverside business to be fleeted.

For years, the boat sat there and the owners paid the monthly fleet bill, but eventually the owner told Dock and Storage tow boat captain Travis Morace to take the steamer to a cut in the Mississippi River where it was meant to be restored, Jenkins said.

She had heard stories that the owner had hired a man to do repairs — repairs that likely never happened — but Jenkins let the boat leave her mind when it left her dock.

Years later, she rediscovered it, stranded on dry land. It hadn’t been in perfect condition when it was docked near Vidalia, but now it was worse. The Barrett was rusted, the wood was rotten and many of its windows broken. It was anchored to one spot by heavy tow cables.

“It is such a shame that happened to it, but once we carried it to the cut, it was out of our care and custody, and I didn’t know what happened to it until one day I was driving around down to Deer Park and saw it,” Jenkins said.

The Deer Park area is between the old and new U.S. Army Corps of Engineers levee systems, and fills with water well before the river reaches its official flood stage. It wouldn’t be difficult for someone to tow a medium-sized vessel like the Barrett in there, anchor it and wait for the water to fall, leaving it on dry land.

Despite its deteriorated condition, the Barrett is still buoyant, and as recently as the 2011 flood, she rose and moved a few feet.

The Barrett’s recent history is confusing. Stories conflict about who owns her — an individual? A casino investor? The town of Rosedale, Miss.? And, who is in care of the property on which she sits?

Even as her present state is shrouded in mystery, the Barrett’s past is, perhaps counter-intuitively,

easier to nail down.

According to the National Register of Historic Places application filed by the State of Kentucky on behalf of the boat’s owners at the time, the boat is a steel-hulled sternwheel towboat that was built in 1921 by the Howard Brothers of Jeffersonville, Ind. At the time, it was considered to represent the best of the industry.

The Barrett measures 125-feet long and 30-feet wide, and according to the application, “her shallow draft of 4-feet-7-inches and displacement of 428 tons were considered superior features for tow boats of the period.” It was built at a cost of $145,000 — adjusted for inflation, that would be $1,864,918.72 today.

Since its construction, the Barrett underwent a number of modifications and retrofitting. Sometime between its launch and 1947 its second deck was extended and the pilot house modified, and in 1933 its engines were converted from coal to fuel-oil fired; later, when its use was changed to that of a floating clubhouse, the steam boilers and other equipment were removed and a dance floor was installed. The second deck was enclosed with wood panels and windows.

The boat was initially the flagship for the Barrett Barge Line, but in 1923 it was sold to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where it was renamed the U.S. Penniman and was modified in 1942 with the installation of a bathtub and elevator to host President Franklin Roosevelt on an inspection tour of the Mississippi River.

The Corps of Engineers sold the boat in 1947 and it changed owners several times before it was purchased by the Harbor Point Yacht Club in West Alton, Mo., the next year. The club used it for brief cruises and as a restaurant.

In 1981, it was sold for $25,000 and renamed the Mamie S. Barrett. After it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, it served as a restaurant at the Eddy Creek Resort and Marina in Eddyville, Ky.

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Story by Vershal Hogan Photos by Ben Hillyer

What remains of the Mississippi River steamboat Mamie S. Barrett sits in Deer Park, La. Only the skeleton of the boat’s paddle wheel and a rusted hull are left. A 1941 picture of the boat , facing page top, shows what the boat looked like when it traveled up and down the river. Now the boat, facing page bottom sits covered in vines and slowly rusts away.

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THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

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BORN AGAIN N

ancy Durkin has seen a lot of reactions to people closing a real estate deal.

But only once has she had a choir sing for her.

Durkin, a real estate agent with Crye-Leike Stedman Realtors, was the agent who facilitated the sale of the former First Evangelical Methodist Church to its new congregation, the New Life Apostolic Church.

But to get to the choir singing, one needs to understand the story of New Life.

When Pastor Eugene Prater started the congregation in August 2007, the church didn’t need a nave that could seat 200.

It only needed his living room.

“We started out very small, 12 to 18 people meeting Monday, Thursday and Sunday,” Prater said. “Our first offering we took up was $9.69.”

Story by Truly, it was Vershal Hogan humble begina ning.

Despite Photos by those meager beginnings, Julia Nagy those in attendance took to heart their mission and started saving and giving to the church. They knew that if they were going to be successful and outgrow that living room, the church was going to need its own stand-alone building.

The ultimate aim was to build or buy a church, Prater said.

By December of that year, they had $14,000 in the bank, all just from dedicated church members.

“The key is that we have members who truly believe in giving, and everybody gives 10 percent of what they get — even my daughter, if she gets a dollar, she is going to give a dime out of it first thing,” he said. “So we were able to raise that money without a garage sale, without selling chicken dinners.”

While this was happening, the congregation was growing — the first year, they baptized 20 people — and soon had to rent space from Bishop and Queen Jackson at the Prayer Center.

That was better — after all, there was breathing room — but it wasn’t ultimately what they wanted.

And one day, as Prater was driving along Melrose-Montebello Parkway, his vision of a permanent location became a literal vision in front of him, a light atop a hill that could not be hidden — a church with a for sale sign in front.

But the good pastor wasn’t greedy, and didn’t want to test the Spirit.

First, he called his sister, whose church he knew also was looking for a new building, to offer them a first look. Hearing that they were pursuing another option, however, Prater knew that there was only one course of action.

Local congregation brings new life to church building

Dorothy Young dances during a New Life Apostolic Church service in December. Pastor Eugene Prater, facing page, preaches during a service Dec. 29. New Life Apostolic Church gave new life to the former First Evangelical Methodist Church when the Apostolic congregation acquired it in August 2007.

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ART

BEHIND BARS

Louisiana Department of Corrections inmate Rodtroy Blackburn sits in a cell at Concordia Correctional Facility with a variety of drawings and pieces of art he’s done during his time at the prison. Blackburn uses a Sharpie marker and a hollowed out pen to add an airbrush effect to his drawings.

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

Rodtroy Blackburn shows off a shirt with the logo for his clothing company, Collosal. He started the company in Franklin, La., before his latest arrest.

Inmate creates art with minimal materials

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odtroy Blackburn takes a deep breath.

He carefully positions the tip of a Sharpie marker at the end of a hollowed out Crayola marker.

As Blackburn exhales through the tube, a fine mist of black ink splashes onto a gray T-shirt.

The end result is exactly the same as what he used to make a living doing in Franklin, La., with his own clothing line, Colossal.

The tools he uses, however, have changed since becoming Louisiana Department of Corrections inmate 417777.

Blackburn, 32, would much rather have the tools he used on the outside — an airbrush gun, air compressor and an array of different colored paint — but he knows better than to wish for something that isn’t likely.

“I’m in jail, man. I know I’m not going to have as many options for stuff to use,” Blackburn said. “I take what I can get in here and use it to make what I can.”

Using his makeshift airbrush tool kit, Blackburn produces a variety of creations such as T-shirts with his former clothing line’s logo, greeting cards for other inmates or whatever else comes into his head.

“You’d be surprised at some of the stuff

Blackburn uses a makeshift airbrush tool kit with a hollowed out pen and Sharpie marker to create his various works of art. we make art with in here,” Blackburn said laughing. “When you have this much time on your hands, you start thinking of stuff you might not have thought of before.”

That much time is what allowed him to come up with the method he now uses, something Blackburn said he wouldn’t have

even considered using outside of prison.

“Something like a T-shirt would have taken me five minutes with the spray gun and all my gear,” Blackburn said. “In here, it can take up to 35 or 45 minutes to do the same thing.

“It’s not quick, but it’s all I got.”

Blackburn, a native of Compton, Calif., which earned him the nickname “Cali” inside prison, was already a felon without the right to carry a weapon — due to a previous drug charge. When he was found in 2009 in possession of a firearm and using a motor vehicle without authorization he ended up in the Concordia Parish prison.

Blackburn had moved to Franklin, La., in 2008 after his grandmother, who lived in the area, became ill.

After she died, Blackburn said he stayed in the area and opened up a store selling clothes from his clothing line and doing commissioned airbrush work for customers.

His passion for art and creating something from nothing continued after getting arrested and sent to Concordia Parish.

“I started drawing and stuff when I was younger, and I’ve been creating some kind of art pretty much since then,” Blackburn said. “It doesn’t matter where I am or what I have with me, I’m going to make art.”

s tor y and P hoto s b y R od G u a j ardo

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THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

Rodtroy Blackburn uses a makeshift airbrush toolkit to produce a variety of artwork for greeting cards for other inmates and any other designs that come into his head.

Having served four years of his 12-year sentence at the prison in Concordia Parish has allowed Blackburn to build a following with other inmates for his art.

“I’ve been here the longest out of anyone in my dorm,” he said. “Everybody just knows me as ‘Cali’ and whenever they want any kind of art done or whatever, they just say, ‘Ask Cali.’”

But that much recognition can be a blessing or a burden depending on the request from an inmate.

“Sometimes they’ll want you to make a greeting card for their girl or whatever, but they don’t tell you how to spell the name, or they’ll spell it wrong,” Blackburn said laughing. “I try and stay away from those now because they’re just trouble.”

For a greeting card, Blackburn said he uses basic card stock inmates can purchase at the prison. The artwork on the cards is usually drawn with a regular marker or colored pencil.

The T-shirts, or any other clothing, can be a bit more complicated depending on the design, he said.

If the design is complex or requires a variety of colors, Blackburn said he creates a stencil

“Sometimes they’ll want you to make a greeting card for their girl or whatever, but they don’t tell you how to spell the name, or they’ll spell it wrong.”

Rodtroy Blackburn

Louisiana Department of Corrections inmate or pattern from the cardstock and uses that to contain the spray from his marker to a particular area.

More basic designs, or those that Blackburn has done several times before, don’t need a pattern.

“I used to use the patterns for everything, but once you get the hang of it you can stop using them and do it without them,” he said. “A lot of the times I’ll just spray whatever comes into my head without a pattern.

“Sometimes I’ll draw it out with pencil on a piece of paper if it’s really complicated.”

His creations inside the prison — and those he made before in Franklin and California have resulted in people asking Blackburn to get out quickly.

“There’s a lot of people in California asking when I’ll be coming back home and some even in Atlanta that want me to come there and do some work,” he said. “I’m probably going to head back to California eventually, though.

“It’s too slow down here in Louisiana.”

Blackburn’s official release date is list Oct. 3, 2014, but he said his good behavior inside the prison has bumped that up significantly.

“I went before the judge in December, and he said I would be out of here real soon,” Blackburn said. “I’ve been giving away all my markers and supplies and stuff for when I get out.

“I’m ready to be back on the outside.”

The markers he’s giving away on the inside will soon be replaced with his old airbrush gun and supplies to continue creating his art on the outside.

“The world is surrounded by art — it always has been and it always will be,” he said. “I’m just trying to create something that people will enjoy and that will last.”

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46 PROFILE 2013

100 YEARS OF FAITH

Seeds planted by Italian immigrants still fruitful at Assumption Catholic Church

Clockwise from top left: The original Assumption church was a wood frame structure with a picket fence. Don Verucchi, a descendent of one of the church’s original founders, serves as lay eucharistic minister during a recent service. Gusta Evangelsito, Martha Gruppi Verucchi and their family helped form the church. The Viccinelli family were also key figures in the church’s founding. The current church building is a brick structure built in 1960. The first wedding celebrated at Assumption was that of Robert Gamberi and Emelia Mascagni on Jan. 1, 1916. The Rev. Patrick Hayden served as the church’s first rector from 1891-1921.

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

47

S tory b y M i chae l K erekes | P hotos b y Ben H i l ly er

U

nderstanding the beginning of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Natchez means connecting to the early Italian settlers of the community.

Local resident Johnny Byrne, who grew up in the church, has connections that run deeper than his own time on earth.

Byrne’s ancestors on his mother’s side, the Viccenelli family, were key figures in Assumption Church’s founding in 1913.

Byrne’s great-grandfather, Lodovico Viccenelli, was part of a group of Italian immigrants who came to America from Bologna, Italy, in 1905. After arriving in New York, the group migrated to Vicksburg before working on plantations as indentured servants near Tallulah, La. “My great-grandfather would come to Natchez once a week to sell vegetables, and he got to be friends with a group of guys that played poker,” Byrne said. “One of those people was Lee Parker Sr. who owned a lot of land.”

And after Viccenelli brought Parker a load of vegetables as a gift, an idea was formed. “(Parker) told him, ‘If (the immigrants) can all grow vegetables as well as you can, I’ll give you land to homestead,’” Byrne said.

“That land later became the church.”

The immigrants reportedly left the plantations at which they were working in the secrecy of night, settling along what is now Morgantown Road, on which Assumption Church is located.

Charles Mascagni, a Natchez native who currently lives in Baton Rouge, has done research on the families that originally founded Assumption Church. The families migrated from Italy due to a famine in the early 1900s, he said. The “great escape,” in which the Italian families left the plantations in the cover of night, was the result of the families’ dissatisfaction with working conditions.

“They lived in slave quarters, and as sharecroppers, that wasn’t the deal they thought they were getting into,” Mascagni said.

Mascagni said the plantation owners had the immigrants under contract, with an understanding that the immigrants would eventually get to own some of the land they worked on. But because the prices were inflated, it would take a while for that to become reality.

The great escape resulted in the landowners pressing charges against the immigrants, since the landowners felt the escapees didn’t fulfill their contractual obligations as indentured servants. The courts eventually ruled in the immigrants’ favor.

“The 13th amendment outlawed peonage, and indentured servitude is a form of peonage,” Mascagni explained.

So the immigrants eventually settled on the land Parker gave them, which idolized the man in the minds of the immigrants.

“He was a god to them,” Mascagni said.

“He saved them.”

As devout Catholics, the group first started attending Mass at St. Mary Basilica, but they eventually wanted a place to call their own. Natchez resident Donnie Verucchi, a descendent of one of the original Assumption families, said the immigrants saw discrimination by St. Mary members, mostly

Irish Catholics who didn’t want uneducated Italians being there.

But not all members of St. Mary were hostile toward the Italian families. Some of the ladies at St. Mary offered to teach the Italian children English, Verucchi said.

“The children were only taught English, because it was the language of American citizens, and (the families) wanted the children to speak the language of American citizens,” Verucchi said.

Initially, the Mass for the Italian immigrants began in the home of Verucchi’s grandfather, Augustine Hayden Verucchi.

Father Patrick Hayden, a pastor of St. Mary at the time, took interest in helping the Italians form their own church and eventually used his own money to build a chapel in 1913 on Morgantown Road for the families.

That chapel was Assumption Church, and it’s been the Verucchi family’s church ever since.

“I feel some ownership of it because of the tradition,” Donnie Verucchi said. “The first Masses for the Italians were done in my great-grandfather’s home, so it’s a part of me. Every time I walk in the door, I feel so blessed and honored that I’ve had the opportunities I’ve had provided to me by the church.

“There’s a long wall of pictures of the original Italian families. I can see my greatgrandfather and all of his children. I show those pictures to my grandchildren or anyone else that’s interested.”

The Rev. David O’Connor, current pastor at both St. Mary and Assumption, said a St. Mary priest continued to service Assumption from its opening until 1957, when Bishop Richard Gerow appointed the Rev. Tom Tuite pastor of Assumption.

“Then it was considered a fully fledged parish,” O’Connor said.

Natchez resident Smokye Joe Frank also has a personal connection to the church’s history, as his grandmother, Cecilia Verucchi, was one of the first people baptized at the church.

“She was in the top two for sure,” Frank said. “She always said she was the first.”

As a member of the church growing up, Frank said there were several traditions that were passed down by the Italian families.

Since most of them were farmers, they had a farmer’s Mass at 5:30 on Sunday mornings before heading out to sell produce.

New Year’s Mass was particularly exciting, Frank said. Boys would attend Mass with their fathers until they were approximately 11 or 12 years old, Frank said, and afterward, the males would get together and visit Italian families for good luck.

“We’d go from house to house wishing everyone a happy New Year,” Frank said. “The people in the households would give us nickels, dimes, apples and oranges and candy.

The old men got liquor.”

The women, meanwhile, didn’t leave the house out of superstition.

“I don’t know if it was a tradition in Italy or not,” Frank said.

During the New Year’s visits, the males would recite and receive blessings in Italian, but Frank said he never understood a word that was said.

“You’re so little, you don’t even know

From top: Adelma and Blanche Carrazza settled in Natchez and helped found the church. The Rev. David O’Connor is the current priest serving the church. The Baroni family was also instrumental in the early formation of the church.

50 PROFILE 2013

Ben Hillyer | The Natchez Democrat

Worry on the sidelines

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

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Possibility of injury always present for athletes’ parents S tor y b y M i chae l K erekes

F

or Roseminette Gaudé, every parent’s nightmare happened.

It was the fall of 1978, and her son Blasé Patrick Gaudé was playing for Cathedral High School against Notre Dame High School in Biloxi.

Blasé was making a tackle, and the other player’s knee hit the side of Blasé’s helmet.

Blasé fell to the ground and wasn’t moving, his mother said.

“He was the only boy on the Cathedral team who wore white cleats, so I saw a kid lying on the field in white cleats with everyone around him,” Roseminette said.

“I asked my husband what they would do to me if I went onto the field, and he said, ‘I don’t know,’ so I jumped the fence.”

Her son’s words only served to further her

worry after she arrived.

“He told me first that I wasn’t supposed to be out there,” Roseminette said. “Then he said, ‘Mama, something’s wrong, I can’t feel anything.’”

With the joy of watching a child play football comes the worry a parent feels every time that child gets hit. Even with specialized equipment protecting players, no one is ever 100-percent safe, as the Gaudé family knows too well.

“Don’t let him die, I think that was the main thing,” Roseminette recalled about her thoughts that night. “When it happens, you don’t really have the opportunity to think about it until you have time.”

When she finally did have time to think about things and accept the situation, Roseminette said she just wanted her son to be

Roseminette and Henry Gaudé, on facing page, went through the nightmare many parents of athletes fear when their children take to the field. At the end of their son’s first football game of his senior season in 1978, Blasé Gaudé suffered a broken neck injury that left him paralyzed. At top right is a photo of Blasé after he returned to Natchez from rehabilitation in Jackson in 1979. Blasé, at center, participates in a race with his son Nathan in 2002. Blasé continued to participate in many outdoor activities, including snow skiing, at bottom, until his death in 2006.

Photos courtesy of RoseMinette Gaudé

52 PROFILE 2013

Lauren Wood | The Natchez Democrat

Last fall, Amos James II was found in the bleachers on Friday nights at Natchez High School, even though his son, senior Amos James III, was sidelined with a shoulder injury during the game on Nov. 2 against Oak Grove High School. able to do everything he possibly could in life.

“I didn’t know if he would be able to breathe (on his own) at the time,” Roseminette said. “The thought of being tied to a machine to keep you breathing … I don’t know how to describe what that’s like (for a mother).”

Blasé was taken to a local Air Force base, where he was later diagnosed with a clean break of his C2 and C3 vertebrae. The injury meant that, in addition to being paralyzed from the neck down, his breathing was affected, and he needed to be put on a respirator.

Blasé was accepted into a rehab center in Jackson as a respirator-dependent patient.

“They told us he would be on it the rest of his life, but he was off it the following February,” Roseminette said.

Like any mother would, Roseminette said she tried to stay with her son while he was rehabbing in Jackson until the staff at the rehab center insisted she not.

“I stayed during the week and came home on the weekends until the first part of December, then they invited me to leave,” she joked.

After rehab, Blasé graduated from Cathedral and attended Mississippi State University, earning degrees in computer science and computer engineering. Blasé eventually moved to Albuquerque, N.M., after college, and Roseminette said after arranging for his assisted living conditions, she let him live his own life.

“He couldn’t have been the person he was if we hadn’t (left him),” Roseminette said.

Blasé lived for 27 years following his injury. He

“I hate to see a person get hurt. I’m not saying life ends, but it hinders life. I was fortunate I got to go on and do what I wanted to, because some people aren’t that fortunate.”

Amos James II

father of Natchez High football player Amos James III married and had one son, Nathan, before he died in January 2006 when his central nervous system finally gave out after many years of battling.

His widow, Patricia Gaudé, and their son currently live in Vidalia.

Without the support of his family, Roseminette said her son probably wouldn’t have fared as well as he did. That’s why it’s important for parents to be involved in a child’s rehab if he does get injured, she believes.

“You have to tell your children they can do anything they set their minds to,” she said. “You need to know your child has everything done for them that can be done, but then be very supportive of them living their own life.”

That didn’t just apply to Blasé. Roseminette said she also had to accept that another son, Kurt, was going to play football despite any fears the family had following Blasé’s injury.

“Blasé said, ‘You can’t make him not play football because I broke my neck. That’s stupid,’” Roseminette said. “Lots of people break their necks in car wrecks and other things than football.”

But Roseminette’s fears play out every day — especially in the fall — in the minds of moms and dads everywhere.

Personal worry

For father Amos James II, his worries are grounded in the reality of personal experience.

James was serving in the U.S. Army at age 31 in October 1997 and was stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga., when an accident while working on an M1A1 tank left him paralyzed from the waist down.

More than a decade later, James made a habit of going out to Natchez High School football games this fall to see his son, senior receiver/defensive back Amos James III, play football for the Bulldogs on Friday nights.

As much as he enjoys watching football, James said the threat of seeing his son get injured was always in the back of his mind.

“When they’re balled up on the field or in the pile, I always look for No. 4,” James said. “I keep an eye on him the whole game. I watch the game, but I always look for No. 4. I always go to the game no matter how cold or hot it is, because I need to be there just in case.”

His own paralysis makes the fear of serious injury for his son all the more real to the elder James.

“I’m just glad that, up to this point, he hasn’t been paralyzed,” James said.

“It’s a blessing. I wouldn’t wish that one anyone.

I hate to see a person get hurt. I’m not saying life

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT ends, but it hinders life. I was fortunate I got to go on and do what I wanted to, because some people aren’t that fortunate.”

The younger Amos has not been immune to injury, though.

The elder James watched his son sustain a shoulder injury during the Bulldogs’ game against Hattiesburg High School Oct. 19.

Though he returned to action in that game, he was later diagnosed with a shoulder separation and was sidelined for the rest of the regular season.

“I was coming down to make a tackle, and I fell on my shoulder wrong,” Amos said.

Amos sat out a few plays before popping his shoulder back in and returning to the field. James said he was aware of his son not being in the game but didn’t think much of it at first.

“I thought they took him out to rest him, then I remembered he had a play where he was on the ground and I thought, ‘Maybe he got hurt,’” James said.

NHS Athletic Director Fred Butcher eventually informed James that his son was hurt, confirming to the father the reality that every play brings the potential for an injury.

“Anything can happen, whether it’s a neck injury or a leg injury — that’s the game of football,” James said. “Whether it’s at the game or practice, you never know what’s going to happen.”

Despite the threat of getting hurt, the younger James said it was difficult to not just get back onto the field. His injury kept him sidelined for three weeks, but Amos said he would have returned sooner if it were up to him.

“The only way they can keep me off the field is

“I tried to keep it in when I was at the hospital. On the ride home, I was bawling. I was so sad.”

Khalil Brice

Cathedral football player if a doctor says I can’t play,” Amos said.

Sidelined

For Cathedral High School senior Khalil Brice the season ended too early.

Brice, a running back, suffered a torn meniscus on his right knee during the Green Wave’s game against Stringer High School in September.

The injury meant that he couldn’t play the rest of his senior season. Brice admitted he got emotional after the reality of being out for the season sank in.

“I tried to keep it in when I was at the hospital,” Brice said. “On the ride home, I was bawling. I was so sad.”

Khalil lives with his grandparents, Hattie and John Brice, and Hattie said it was difficult for her to watch her grandson when he was on the sideline and obviously injured.

“A lot of parents don’t go down to see (their hurt child), but I’m one of those that wants to see,” Hattie said.

Unlike his wife, John said he’s inclined to stay in the stands unless the absolute worst happens.

“I kind of stay away,” he said. “They’ll call me if they need me.”

John said it was never easy to see Khalil sustain hits during a football game, but he understood that

was the nature of the game.

“It’s tough, but you just have to suck it up,” John said.

Hattie said she relied on her faith in God to help her cope with the possibility of her grandson being seriously hurt playing the sport he loves.

“You just pray and hope it’ll work out, and that God will take care of it,” Hattie said. “He’s gotten some bumps, but nothing major. I’ve been truly blessed for him not to have had any major injuries.”

Not all football injuries happen on the field of play. Khalil’s teammate, junior receiver and defensive end Turner Janette, fractured his L-1 vertebrae, tore four ligaments and strained two on his spine during a weight-room exercise in June.

Turner was doing step-up exercises when his leg slipped and he landed in a sitting position with the barbell still on his back. He said the pain was intense, and the coaches were forced to sit on him until the ambulance arrived so he wouldn’t move and possibly further injure himself.

“The first thing that went through my mind is, ‘Oh my God, I’m paralyzed,’” Turner said. “After they told me to move my toes and I did, I said, ‘OK, but my back is broken.’”

Turner was eventually transported to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, where he underwent surgery. He had 10 screws and two rods put in his back to help it heal.

With weight-room injuries being much less common than on-the-field injuries, Turner’s father, Ken Janette, said he doesn’t question whether anything could have been done differently to prevent his son from getting hurt.

Lauren Wood | The Natchez Democrat

Natchez High School senior receiver/defensive back Amos James III, left, sits with teammate Herbert Steadman as they watch the home game against Oak Grove High School. James watched from the sidelines for the remainder of the season after injuring his shoulder in October.

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54 PROFILE 2013

Lauren Wood | The Natchez Democrat

Physical therapist DeShaun Jackson works with Adams County Christian School senior linebacker Hunter Norris on Norris’ shoulder injury at Natchez Regional Medical Center.

Jackson said he was teaching Norris exercises to prevent interior instability, which could lead to a dislocated shoulder.

60 PROFILE 2013 Hayden Kaiser III has rung a few Mississippi State cowbells in his lifetime. Kaiser attended engineering school in Starkville, graduated from Ole Miss and has been a longtime LSU fan.

GO TEAMS GO

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

Local fans cheer for schools they never attended

I

n these parts, when the college football bandwagon rolls by, jumping on is easy.

Nearly everyone follows the sport, has their favorite team and wears the colors.

But often, fans cross the line of scrimmage in seemingly the wrong direction, cheering for a school they never attended.

In Louisiana, non-alumni fan support for LSU is prevalent for a reason, football fan Doug Schexnayder said.

“It’s the largest school, it’s in the capital, there’s tremendous tradition and enough athletic money, and that means a lot,” Schexnayder said.

The fact that LSU is the state’s flagship school also fills up the Tiger bandwagon.

“It’s state pride,” Schexnayder said. “We don’t have a second high-caliber, SEC school in Louisiana. You’re sort of a fan by default.”

That theory holds true for several local residents who attended other schools but never turned their backs on LSU. Ole Miss has earned its own share of drive-by fans, too, sometimes based on another, specific tie to Louisiana — Archie Manning.

Hayden Kaiser III

Hayden Kaiser III grew up in Natchez like many little boys — as a big time LSU fan.

In 1984 he was ready to start his college career in Baton Rouge after graduating from Trinity Episcopal.

But his roommate-to-be, Charlie Slay, backed out the summer before he was to start school at LSU and decided to attend Mississippi State instead.

“We never actually got down there for school,” Kaiser said. “I graduated with a class of about 26, and I wasn’t about to go to a campus of 30,000 people by myself.”

So his Tiger fandom was put to the test as Kaiser attended another SEC school.

Though his love for the Bayou Bengals was strong, his desire to be around at least some familiar faces was stronger.

“I had friends from other schools, and I don’t recall anyone going to LSU,” Kaiser said. “Ninety percent of them went to Ole Miss or Mississippi State.”

For Kaiser, attending Mississippi State simply meant adding another school to his allegiance.

“The first year I was there, I rooted for LSU, and Mississippi State beat them,” Kaiser said. “I was sick.”

The next season, Kaiser said he was indifferent.

Then, Kaiser began rooting for Mississippi State when the two teams faced off.

“I pulled for State until I graduated and moved back home,” Kaiser said.

Now, Kaiser plays fair weather fan.

When the Bulldogs and the Tigers meet, he evaluates the season and roots for whichever team is

Tom Graning graduated from Delta State University, but he can be found rooting for the Louisiana State Tigers most Saturdays in the fall. having a better year and would be more impacted by the win.

“The last 10 years, it’s always been LSU,” Kaiser said. “I’ll usually avoid the LSU-Mississippi State game in Baton Rouge.”

But Kaiser’s allegiances get even more complicated.

Kaiser attended Mississippi State for five years, but he actually finished school at Ole Miss.

Cheering for the Rebels was, of course, unthinkable for both an LSU fan and Mississippi State fan.

“I never considered pulling for Ole Miss,” Kaiser said.

“I regret not going to LSU sometimes. I always wonder if the decisions I made in life are right, but if I had gone to LSU, I never would have met all the people I did at Mississippi State.”

Tom Graning

Natchez resident Tom Graning grew up with a father on the SEC football field.

Al Graning was a referee for the conference, working games in Baton Rouge and taking Tom along to LSU country regularly.

“When you’re a kid that age, it’s impressionable,” Tom Graning said. “It sticks with you.”

But when it came time for college, Graning went where he thought he’d have a chance to play ball — Delta State University — not just watch.

But his football career was short-lived, as the college life was too tempting.

“After my freshman year of football, I found other things to do,” Graning admitted. “Looking back, I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t stick with it. Do-

ing what I did, I should have gone to LSU and done the same thing.”

At Delta State, it’s common for the students — who all love the Fighting Okra — to also root for a bigger school in the region.

“There are hardcore Delta State fans there — you don’t get any bandwagon fans — but they’re also predominantly Mississippi State and Ole Miss fans,” Graning said.

For Graning, the other allegiance never strayed from his childhood team. And today, he’s more of an LSU fan than a Statesman.

“Most of (my money) goes to LSU,” Graning said.

Graning said friends give him a hard time about being a “sidewalk alumnus” of LSU. “I think it’s all bull,” Graning said. “You figure, there’s not that many people that actually get to go to that school all the time. Over the years, I guarantee you there’s more fans that aren’t alumni of every school than there are actually alumni.

“It bothers me when people try to make a big deal about you not going to school there. A fan is a fan.

They’re just trying to belittle you.”

Randy Johnson

Natchez resident Randy Johnson grew up a huge Ole Miss fan, but it wasn’t so much his family as it was his Saints fandom that led him to yell, “Hotty Toddy.”

“Archie Manning with the New Orleans Saints was my first pro hero,” Johnson said. “He went to Ole Miss, where the speed limit is still 18 (after Manning’s number).

“He was fascinating. He didn’t really have the casting support in his early years in New Orleans, but he was awesome.”

Though he never attended Ole Miss, Johnson said he still feels a connection to the school and tradition.

“The tradition, the history, the Grove, that’s what makes Ole Miss special,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s son, Matt, is currently a student at Ole Miss, giving Dad the perfect excuse to keep right on cheering.

“They don’t know I didn’t go there,” Johnson joked. “I told them I did. I pretty much have my Ole Miss stuff on whenever I’m not at work.”

Johnson’s wife Chretia doesn’t support the red and blue, but she does cheer for a school she didn’t attend.

Chretia attended Louisiana-Monroe but grew up an LSU fan and stuck with the Bayou Bengals.

Now, Randy said there are plenty of arguments in the Johnson household over Ole Miss and LSU. “It’s been difficult at times,” Randy joked. “We have to share the big TV in the den. I had a strategic move one day and told my wife I had some Ole Miss guys coming over to watch the ball game. I was able to control the TV in the den.”

S tor y b y M I chae l K erekes | P hotos BY Ben H i l l y er

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66 PROFILE 2013 her first calf when she was big enough to handle it was a milestone for her.

“The cows were big and daddy didn’t want me to get hurt, so I didn’t get to start doing the open shows until second or third grade,” she said.

“I was pretty excited — I would go to some of the shows with them before, but it was cool to go out and do it myself.”

That meant going with her father to pick out a show animal.

“We look at how thick they are, meat wise,” she said. “When we buy them, they have all their hair, but for the district and state shows they have to be slick sheared, so you have to picture them and see their muscle behind their hair, and you have to look at how they walk, how big they are, and you don’t want their necks too long or their legs too short.”

Once the animal is selected and brought home, the care starts.

And caring for a large, growing animal like a calf takes its share of work.

They have to be fed twice a day and given fresh water, and several times a week they have to be tied and walked so they will be used to being led on the show floor.

Sometimes that’s not so easy. Other times, all that attention to training during the days leading up to a competition pays off.

“Sometimes, you can just walk in the ring and it is no trouble, they just keep their heads up for you and walk easy and don’t try to run you over like they know what they are doing or are just following you around,” Russell said.

One thing is certain; the longer you work with an animal, the more attached you get to it, Russell said. Giving it a name only forges that attachment stronger.

For 11-year-old Emily Guillot, naming one of her lambs seemed to be the most natural thing in the world.

“I named her Daisy because the lady we bought her from had just given her her first bath, and she was so white I figured to name her Daisy,” Guillot said.

Like with the larger livestock, lambs require twice-daily feeding, water checks and halter training.

But unlike the calves, it’s a little easier to play with them.

“When you do it, you just have to get used to knowing your animal, and when you get used to knowing your animal, it is just like when you have a little puppy,” Guillot said. “You play with it, and you just fall in love with it by the time it grows up.”

That’s why she was so sad to find out her lamb had been sold after the last show last year, Guil-

lot said.

It’s something all show parents have to see, said Guillot’s mother, Angie.

“The first year is always hard to see your first animals go, and (Emily) wasn’t there when they were sold, so it was kind of traumatic for her,” Angie said. “She was attached to them, but from what they tell me it is always harder the first year, but gets easier.”

And now, Emily Guillot is pragmatic about the whole affair.

“The lamb was sweet, but when they get bigger, you kind of have to sell them because they get too big for you to handle,” she said.

And even if you’re unhappy about having to do it, that’s the one guideline you don’t break, Russell said.

“That is the cardinal rule — you always sell your cow,” she said.

For Emily Guillot, knowing what is coming at the end of the year is part of being able to cope with the permanent parting.

“When I lost my other sheep, maybe a few months later I found out I was getting a new sheep, and it made me happy that I was getting a new sheep, and it didn’t bother me so much that I had to sell mine,” she said. “Now that I know that it is coming, it didn’t bother me that bad.”

Eleven-year-old Emily Guillot pets her sheep Daisy while out for a walk around the family’s home in Monterey. Daisy is one of the sheep Guillot takes care of and shows at various 4-H events.

68 PROFILE 2013

RESTORING RESPECT Groups focus tirelessly on restoration, care for Watkins Street Cemetery STory by Lindsey SheLTON Photos by Rod Guajardo & Ben HillYer

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

A

long a dirt road in Watkins Street Cemetery, under a big cedar tree and just across from the mass grave for those who died in the Rhythm Night Club fire in 1940, lies the eternal resting place of A.A. Newell.

Newell was a vegetable and cotton farmer and owned land in Wilkinson County. He was also a deacon at Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church, one of 10 deacons who formed the Natchez Colored Cemetery Association in 1909 to establish a final resting place for African-Americans in the community.

The deacons — Newell, J.H.C. Henry, George Washington Brumfield, Wm. Cosey, D. Lewis, Henry Ireland, J.R. Ross, C.P. Hunter, Jas Cosgrove and G.L. Sanders — pledged $700 each to purchase 17 acres of Old Gailiard’s Shooting Park from A.E. James on March 19, 1909.

“They were the cream of the crop of the black community,” said Darrell White, director of the Natchez Association for the Preservation of AfroAmerican Culture Museum. “They were the educators, the business leaders; they were the ones who found themselves in a position where they could pay to purchase the land.”

One of the group, for example, G.W. Brumfield was born in Yazoo County in 1866 and taught school in Yazoo County before moving to Natchez in the 1890s. He served for more than 25 years as the principal of the black public schools in Natchez.

Brumfield was superintendent of Sunday school at Zion Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church and lived on St. Catherine Street, where Brumfield School, which is named for him, is located.

White said during the height of the Jim Crow era, there were very few places available for African-Americans to be buried.

“Unless you had family land or were affiliated with a church, there was really no where for African-Americans to be buried,” he said. “There had also been laws which prohibited blacks and whites from being buried in the same cemetery.

So these men got together and organized the Natchez Colored Cemetery Association to provide a final resting place for the black community.”

The cemetery association continued through the years, and local resident Duncan Morgan, 81, remembers going to the cemetery as a boy in the 1940s and 50s with his grandfather W.A. Stevens, who was treasurer of the cemetery association.

“It was a labor of love for those who were on the board,” Morgan said.

The association, Morgan said, had officers, regular meetings and paid a caretaker for burials and maintenance.

The cemetery was fairly well maintained for many years, Morgan said.

“But when the real dedicated older ones died out, and the families of some of the older ones had gone to Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles or wherever, it just got worse and worse until it reached a point where it was a jungle.”

Families with loved ones maintained individual graves and family plots, but with no organized association, the cemetery fell into great disrepair.

Natchez native Thelma White, 89, moved back to Natchez in 2002 when she retired from teaching. White visited the cemetery, where her grandfather Irvin Evans is buried.

“I was shocked at the shape it was in,” she said.

The oldest headstone in Watkins Street Cemetery is that of E.L. Johnston, above. Johnston died in 1908, one year before the Natchez Colored Cemetery Association was formed.

In 2005, White along with Gloria Butler, Carolyn Smith, Dorothy Sanders and Rosie Hawkins formed the Worthy Women of Watkins Street.

The goal of the nonprofit group was similar to the goal of the original founders’ cemetery association.

“We wanted to restore it to a dignified place,” she said. “It’s ours, it’s people I grew up with.

My folks are buried out there, and it’s a part of the city.”

The Worthy Women, along with the help of the Master Gardeners and other civic organizations, have worked to keep the grass cut, roads clear, sunken graves repaired and more.

The City of Natchez and the Adams County Board of Supervisors have also provided some help. But with no legal owner established for the cemetery, perpetual care has fallen into the hands of volunteers.

Sanders, who is still the treasurer of the Worthy Women, said she played hide-and-seek and hopscotch at the cemetery as a child. Sanders grew up on Watkins Street and has seen personally the struggle to preserve the cemetery.

“It’s been an uphill battle,” Sanders said. “I see it as part of our black heritage, and you want to see your heritage taken care of.”

Cemetery co-founder Newell’s great-greatnephew Barney Schoby Jr. certainly sees the cemetery as part of his heritage.

“The history is deep, especially when it touches me firsthand, being one of the descendants of the

first founders,” Schoby said.

Schoby says he believes his great-great-uncle and the other founders saw the cemetery as a place that was theirs, no matter what.

“I think they envisioned a place without the red tape, without the rope of segregation, a piece of ground that was sacred to them,” Schoby said.

But red tape has stood in the way of perpetual care of the cemetery, Darrell White said. House Bill No. 1080 allows for a county through its sheriff to use inmate labor for the preservation and restoration of a cemetery at least 100 years old and designated as historically significant by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

“However, the county has somewhat sidestepped the issue because the cemetery is located within the city limits,” White said.

Morgan said his grandfather and the other members of the cemetery association would be appalled to know the state of Watkins Street Cemetery.

“He would be horrified,” Morgan said. “They conscientiously worked to keep it tolerable, and they were dedicated. There was nothing in it for them.”

The history that is held in Watkins Street Cemetery should not be overlooked, Darrell White said. The community, he said, was overwhelmed with the tragic loss of 209 people on April 23, 1940, in the deadly Rhythm Night Club fire.

“If the families didn’t have the means for burial or they couldn’t identify the body, those people ended up in the mass graves,” he said. “History such as that should not be left to ruin.”

The Isle of Capri Casino recently donated a fivefoot-tall monument to mark the mass grave.

Some of the stories of the stones at Watkins Street Cemetery may be buried along with the bodies, but those working to save the cemetery believe there is hope to keep the cemetery’s story alive.

“We just need some help,” Sanders said. “We need the whole community.”

The Worthy Women continue to work with local youth and other groups to maintain the cemetery. McKinley Barnes has served as a caretaker for more than 50 years.

Thelma White has parted ways with the Worthy Women and formed The Descendants, a nonprofit cemetery preservation group seeking to rename the cemetery The Sanctuary.

Brian Marvel, 33, vice president of The Descendants said it is important that the younger generation of the community gets involved to ensure the cemetery is cared for in the future. Marvel said he was encouraged by people in the community to get involved and others his age should be as well.

“In order to go somewhere in life, you have to know where you come from,” he said.

Marvel said he believes the key to preserving Watkins Street Cemetery for future generations is establishing it has a part in Natchez tourism.

Doing that, he said, will pique interest in the cemetery and hopefully lead to funding and a longterm plan for preservation.

White said she and the older generation of people who have worked so hard to save the cemetery will not be around forever, so the younger generations must step up. After all, she said, the community owes it to the cemetery’s founders.

“The idea that they would spend that kind of money back then to give our people a place to be buried, that deserves some respect,” she said.

Facing page, clockwise from top left: A sign erected in 2012 at the entrance of the Watkins Street Cemetery tells of the cemetery’s founding and of the Worthy Women of Watkins Cemetery Association’s efforts to restore the cemetery. Barney Schoby Jr. tends to the cemetery plot of Albertine Newell, his great-grandmother. Eddie Minor and Dante Phillip help clean up the cemetery. Nellie Dottery walks up the hill where many of the Rhythm Night Club victims are buried in the cemetery. Thelma White helped start the Worthy Women of Watkins Cemetery Association.

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BACK into the FLOCK

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Ministers provide inmates with spiritual freedom, opportunity for forgiveness, new direction in life

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vangelist Brenda Brown’s church doesn’t have a steeple, and it doesn’t have pews. It doesn’t have service books.

But it does have bars, lots and lots

Evangelist Brenda Brown ministers to female inmates at the Adams County Jail. Brown leads the group of women in song before preaching and praying. The Rev. Clifton Marvel Sr., on facing page, delivers his sermon to male inmates gathered at the jail.

of bars.

And what else could you expect in a jail?

After a jailer heaves open a heavy metal door and yells that the minister is there, Brown straightens her jacket, steps into a cage between the door and the rest of the women’s cell block and greets her parishioners.

Some members of Brown’s flock from last week are gone; others are back for the mid-week service. That’s not unusual. They didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Those present share prayer requests. They read the Bible together. Taking up song, they use an old Gospel standby, “Jesus on the Mainline.”

And when Brown belts out, “I’ve got Jesus on the mainline, tell him what you want,” someone responds.

“Jesus, I want out of here!”

A few people laugh, but the song doesn’t break, not yet, because in Brown’s church, that’s what everybody wants. Out. They want out.

Anyone can find God there, but in some senses it’s one of the most exclusive houses of worship around, and its members — no matter how joyfully they sing — wish they could be somewhere else.

But even as they long for physical freedom, they also long for spiritual freedom. They gather around the cage that separates them from their spiritual mentor and tears stream down their faces as they ask God for forgiveness, for the strength to confront the circumstances that put them in jail and to live a clean life.

S t or y b y V ers h a l Ho g a n | P h o t os b y L a u re n W oo d

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And that, said Adams County Sheriff ’s Office Jail Administrator Ed Tucker, is the reason ministers have the access to inmate cellblocks that few others are given.

“On the streets, they are surrounded by drugs and crime,” he said. “We want to persuade them, if we can, to get back into church rather than the things they were into.”

A genuine religious experience behind bars helps reduce recidivism, Tucker said.

“Some of the prisoners are very sincere, and if you can get them into a church or something like that, the more likely they are to get back into the community and the less apt they are to get back into things that will get them into trouble,” he said.

That’s because, while jailhouse religion — that is, conversion when one is at the end of their rope and has nowhere to turn other than to God and the bars that surround them — is something he sees, Tucker said that sometimes letting a minister come in and reconnect with a lost soul is just what they need to acknowledge where they have strayed from the straight and narrow.

When the Rev. Clifton Marvel makes his way through the different cell blocks as he visits the jail, he makes it a point to call out to those he knows, and, if they don’t belong to his flock, he’s sure to ask if their pastor knows they are in the jail.

“I had been asking God for an opportunity to minister here in Natchez, but in this town ministry is very much male-dominated.”

Brenda Brown evangelist

Passing out copies of the devotional “Our Daily Bread,” Marvel commands a quiet respect from the prisoners that even the guards who led him into the cage from which he is about to preach did not. One man reaches forward, but Marvel has to respond, “They’ve told me I can’t be shaking your hands anymore.”

Security protocols about minister-to-inmate contact have changed since Marvel first started ministering in the jail at the request of the late Sheriff Ronny Brown. Marvel had been mulling over the idea after watching a documentary about prison life, he said, when Brown asked him unprompted to take up the task.

“I didn’t have to think about it for weeks before I was convinced,” Marvel said. “I have been coming down here ever since.”

Brenda Brown started her tenure as a wom-

en’s minister at Marvel’s behest. He felt a woman could best reach out to the women in the jail.

“I had been asking God for an opportunity to minister here in Natchez, but in this town ministry is very much male-dominated,” Brown said. “I saw this as my opportunity to minister as a woman.”

When she started, Brown was able to enter the cellblock and sit at the table over Bibles with the women, but new standards were put in place that prohibit her from continuing the practice. Now, she balances a Bible on a shelf inside the cage and listens as a prisoner reads from a passage.

The setup isn’t perfect, she said, but it works.

Brown isn’t fiery when she teaches; she’s matter-of-fact, but she tints her voice with compassion. She asks prisoners what God has done in their lives that day, and what they hope he will do. She even talks about her own struggles.

“I share with them that I, too, sin and that I have fallen short of the glory of God, but that I have been saved,” she said. “I may not have ended up in jail, but I’ve done bad, and God has changed my life, and I thank him that I am not the same anymore.”

As the women’s minister, Brown serves only one cellblock. Marvel covers four, and as he preaches, he draws from passages in the Bible

Evangelist Brenda Brown holds onto a prisoner’s finger through the bars of the cage while the group prays at the Adams County Jail. Brown isn’t allowed to enter the cells or have much physical contact with the inmates.

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The small vestibule space in which the Rev. Clifton Marvels stands is a stark reminder for inmates of the difference between the life on the outside of the bars and life on the inside.

While Marvel wears civilian clothes and shoes, the inmates are required to wear stripes and orange Crocs.

At right, Marvel preaches to the inmates about the scripture and about God’s grace of forgiveness and the opportunities for a life of spiritual freedom.

in which apostles and prophets were thrown into prison.

At one cellblock, he uses the example of the early Christian evangelists, Saints Paul and Silas, who were freed after not running away from their jail cells during an earthquake.

“Paul and Silas were in jail for doing nothing other than preaching the word of God,” Marvel said. “Y’all have done a little more than that to end up in here.”

But the point, he said, is that if God wants someone to be free, they will be set free.

Marvel also reminded the men that in that same Bible passage, even though they were in chains, the missionaries sang hymns and thanked God before their deliverance.

“Y’all live together, there’s no reason why you can’t pray together,” he said.

“The devil has ganged up on you, why don’t y’all gang up on him?”

Marvel has a basic outline for his sermon as he preaches to the different cellblocks — he always quotes from Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” — and he always speaks for the inmates’ need to rely on God to change them and their situation, but his tenor and occasionally his text will change depending on the group to which he is speaking.

Before entering the cellblock, Marvel said he usually approaches the teaching of the scriptures to the prisoners in a more “gentle and friendly” way than he might in the context of a regular church service.

But after an hour of visitation, he changed his answer.

“The spirit of the Lord dictates how I minister to them,” Marvel said.

Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said he believes in the religious visitation services because not everyone in jail is a bad person, and even those who are can benefit from a changed heart.

“A lot of people look at the people who are in jail and say, ‘Oh, they’re just criminals,’ but a lot of them are just good people who got into a bad place and made a bad decision,” he said. “Having available to them some kind of spiritual guidance is one of the first steps in helping them correct those decisions.”

Ultimately, no matter what a preacher says, a prisoner’s personal freedom is a matter between themselves, the state and God. As Marvel finishes up the final cellblock, he says a quick prayer and the men gathered around the cage break. Most return to the activities they were doing before the services; someone reaches to turn a television back on.

But one man walks back to his seat, a copy of “Our Daily Bread” open in his hands and sits down, reading the first page, the thought of freedom — perhaps temporal, perhaps eternal — written across his face.

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It’s in the genes Natchez High School senior Derrian Johnson, right, may not be better than his father, Russell Johnson, was on the basketball court, but when it comes to football, Derrian thinks he’s the Johnson to beat. Russell Johnson was a star at North Natchez High School.

Parents pass on athletic prowess to their children Story by Justin Whitmore Photos by Ben Hillyer

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very child with a parent who was, “quite the athlete back in their day,” knows that each time mom or dad tells the stories of athletic prowess, the touchdown runs get longer, the home runs go farther and the point total gets higher.

In a matter of years, mom or dad can go from benchwarmer to MVP. But in a town that loves its sports — especially its sports history — the way Natchez does, those stories can be easily factchecked by prep sports fans who have seen it all in the Miss-Lou. Every once in a while, young athletes find out that their parent really was the athlete they say they were, and they will hear, “Man, you should have seen your daddy back in his day.”

Derrian and Russell Johnson

Natchez High School senior Derrian Johnson piled up recognitions like he piled up yards this

year for the Bulldog football team.

Johnson was named All-Metro player of the year, earned recognition from the Mississippi Association of Coaches as first-team All-State running back and played in the North-South All-Star game.

But throughout Johnson’s standout career, one question has always been on the mind of some of his older fans: Is he better than his father?

Russell Johnson dominated teams on the football field and the basketball court during his time at North Natchez High School. That ability led to a college basketball career that saw him make two NCAA Tournament appearances with the University of Southern Mississippi.

Derrian will admit, after a bit of hesitation, that his father may have him beat on the hardwood, but he is not so quick to admit that Russell was better on the gridiron.

“I think it might be me (in football),” Derrian said.

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

But despite the cordial argument, both father and son take great pride in each other’s accomplishments.

“I saw an article about (dad) and a couple of other (North Natchez) players that made All-Metro first team, and I saw that ugly picture of (his) in the paper,” Derrian joked.

Russell also has keepsakes of Derrian’s accomplishments in a scrapbook, and said he is proud that his son received an honor — top player in the region — that he did not get.

“I never won All-Metro (player of the year), so that’s something he’s got on me,” Russell said. “I mean, I thought I was player of the year. I thought I was the best in the country. But that’s just how we are. You act like you are the best.”

Highlights of Russell’s career have made their way to Derrian’s ears as well, but his favorite is a story about a punt return his father had against Brookhaven.

Russell caught the punt and as the defenders were drawing near, he pointed to the stands and proceeded to return the punt 70 yards for a touchdown.

Russell has his favorite moments as well — like when his son burst through four or five Ferriday High School defenders and scored one of his four touchdowns against the Trojans last season.

Russell was also proud of Derrian’s game in the Bulldogs’ biggest win of the 2012 season.

“That Meridian game, he carried the team on his back,” Russell said.

Russell, who was an all-purpose player at North Natchez just like his son was for the Bulldogs, said he does not try to coach his son, but he would like to see him get a little faster and avoid taking so many hits on the football field.

“You need to have your dad’s speed,” he said.

Derrian said he tries to take his father’s advice, but sometimes he just likes to hit people.

“I still do it most of the time,” he said. “But I try to avoid it sometimes.”

But it’s Derrian’s heart and hard work that makes Russell proud of his son.

“He walks around like me, he acts like me and he has that attitude, that will to win,” Russell said.

“He wants to win just like me. He definitely has that Johnson blood in him.”

Tory Laird and Judy Richards

When Adams County Christian School junior Tory Laird was grow-

Tory Laird, left, plays basketball and softball for Adams County Christian School. Her mother Judy Richards was a standout softball player herself and enjoys watching her daughter play. ing up, she always made it a point ACCS, but Richards still will make to listen to her coach when she was sure her daughter is playing the shouting instructions to Laird on game the right way from time to time, Laird said. the softball diamond.

“She will get on to me for not getNot only did she know that ting in front of the her coach owned ball,” Laird said. a great deal of Moments of knowledge about pride outnumthe game, she also bered moments of knew that if she constructive critidid not listen, she cism for Richards, would hear about however, when it when the two her daughter was went home. learning to play Laird’s mother, the game.

Judy Richards, Judy Richards “I remember she was a standout Tory Laird’s mother hit her first home softball star growrun when she liting up in Natchez and playing for ACCS, and that tle,” Richards said. “It was tee-ball, experience made her an excellent and I was thinking, ‘She’s like me.’”

Richards played slow-pitch softcoach early on in her daughter’s ball at ACCS, but she said most of playing career.

Now Laird plays her softball for her best softball moments came

“I remember she hit her first home

run when she little. It was tee-ball, and I was thinking, ‘She’s like me.’”

during the summer when she played on travel teams that went all across the country.

“She was good at defense,” Laird said. “She could play softball. I’ve heard that from a lot of people.”

Richards dabbled in basketball for a while, before an injury forced her to give that game up, but her preference was always on the diamond.

“In seventh grade, I had surgery, but it wasn’t the worst thing, because softball was always more important,” Richards said.

Despite her genetics, and her ability to be a solid softball player for the Lady Rebels, Laird said her place is on the basketball floor.

“Basketball is my sport,” she said.

The difference of opinion on which sport is best does not keep Richards from having great pride in watching her daughter excel, no matter what the playing field may be.

“I love (watching her play),” Richards said. “I try my best to get off work as much as I can to watch her.”

Richards hung up her coaching hat years ago, however, especially when it comes to basketball.

Now, talks about the game come after the final buzzer, and Laird said the only voice she hears during games is that of her head coach.

“I don’t hear anything going on in the stands,” Laird said. “The only person I do hear is Coach (Melanie) Hall. I block everything out when I’m playing.”

One of Richards’ most thrilling moments on a softball field came more recently when she had the opportunity to play in an alumni game with her daughter. She said the experience was excellent, but she was definitely out of shape.

“There’s a big difference with fast pitch,” Richards said. “Fast pitch wasn’t around when I was playing tournament ball. We played a couple of months ago, and I paid for it for three weeks.”

Laird said she was glad to share the diamond once with her mom.

“It was fun just to play with her and get the experience to play with her in the sport that she loves and I love,” Laird said.

Laird still has a year of sports ahead of her, but she hopes that her mother will have the chance to continue to cheer her on when she gets to college.

“I hope at least to play JUCO ball, and maybe we can still keep it going,” she said.

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Ben Hillyer | The Natchez Democrat

Beginning knitter Beverly Jenkins watches to learn proper positioning for her hands during a knitting lesson by the First Presbyterian Church prayer shawl ministry group.

First Presbyterian Church and Trinity Episcopal Church both have knitting groups that create shawls for people in nursing homes and area hospitals.

HANDS for GOD

Prayer shawl ministries provide comfort for patients Story by Justin Whitmore

86 PROFILE 2013

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udy Moody did not have a recipient in mind when her fingers set to work on her latest shawl.

But she still made her regular Tuesday trips to Natchez Coffee Co. to meet with her knitting partners, and during the weeks-long process a need arose. Moody was ready to fill it.

“This (shawl) didn’t have an owner when I started, but it’s got one now,” Moody said.

The owner came in the form of a member of Moody’s church — First Presbyterian Church in Natchez — who was diagnosed with a serious illness while Moody was working on the shawl.

Moody finished the shawl in mid-January, and it was blessed by the Rev. Noelle Read before being sent to the ailing parish member.

Moody is a member of the First Presbyterian Church Prayer Shawl Ministry along with a growing number of ladies in the church.

The Prayer Shawl Ministry started 15 years ago in Connecticut and has spread throughout the country. Participants knit or crochet shawls for people who are battling tough times or celebrating life changes. Each shawl is blessed and often each member of the group will hold the shawl and say an individual prayer for the recipient.

The shawl provides warmth and comfort to the recipient, but it also brings a spiritual benefit as well, Moody said.

“We pray for the health and comfort of the person and pray for God’s will,” she said.

Read brought the ministry to First Presbyterian and said she has seen what the shawls can do for someone in need.

“They are powerful,” she said. “I’ve seen people who had their prayer shawls with them in the hospital. Each stitch is prayed over, and think about how long a shawl will last. It can be passed on. It’s not something that’s going to go away.”

But First Presbyterian is not the only church in town that has a Prayer Shawl Ministry.

A small group of ladies at Trinity Episcopal Church had been meeting for some time to do needlework and share in fellowship when they started hearing more and more about Prayer Shawl Ministries and decided a year ago to give it a shot, church member Phebe Winters said.

“Last spring we were reading about it, and we realized it would be a great way to reach out to members of the congregation and others in the community,” Winters said. “It’s something tangible to show them we are thinking of them and care about what’s going on in their lives.”

Often, the knitters will not know who their shawls are going to, but Winters said the ladies do not look for recognition from their recipients.

“Occasionally we will get a thankyou note, and we feel blessed by any response from recipients who have communicated to us,” she said. “But they

Ben hillyer | The Natchez Democrat

The Rev. Noelle Read, above, blesses one of the prayers shawls created by the First Presbyterian Church knitting group.

At left, Phebe Winters, left, and Susan Hudson work to tie together shawl packages at Trinity Episcopal Church as part of the church’s prayer shawl ministry. Sue Ann Wilt, below, teaches Helen Smith how to perform one of the basic knitting stitches as Sandra Burkes, left, and Barbara Colwell, right, work on projects during a knitting workshop at the First Presbyterian Church.

Lauren Wood | The Natchez Democrat

Ben hillyer | The Natchez Democrat

90 PROFILE 2013

She’s ready to read Glenburney resident works hard with tutors to recognize words, sentences

Mercedes Costley concentrates while Ruthie Washington helps her with a three-letter word activity at Glenburney Nursing Home. Ruthie works with Mercedes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Elnora Washington on Mondays and Wednesdays.

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

Story and photos by Lauren Wood

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ercedes Costley doesn’t know if she will ever be able to read the chapter books on the shelves at Glenburney Nursing Home, but she wants to one day.

And she’s trying.

The 23-year-old resident at the home has been working with Ruthie Washington and Elnora Washington, two retired schoolteachers, since October to learn the basics of how to read and write.

The tutoring began after Mercedes approached Kathy Davis, the activity director of the nursing home, last fall and asked if she could teach her how to read.

“I said, ‘Mercedes, you know how to read,’” Davis said. “I was surprised when she said she didn’t.”

Mercedes is a graduate of Franklin County High School’s special education department, where she said teachers did not focus much on her as she passed through.

She lives with spina bifida and moved to Glenburney after her adoptive mother died more than a year ago.

Shortly after Mercedes asked Davis for help, Davis began printing off homework for Mercedes each night and checking it for her the next day. Another resident got Davis in touch with the president of the Southwest Unit of the Retired Education Personnel of Mississippi, Barbara Winston, who shared Mercedes’ desire to read at one of the group’s meetings.

Retired teachers Ruthie Washington and Elnora Washington volunteered to help and have been working with Mercedes for several months four times a week for an hour a day on her reading and writing skills.

“When we started, she didn’t know what a sentence was,” said Elnora, who retired in 2006 from teaching preschool and kindergarten. “Young children already know these things because they are exposed to it every day, and we can only work with her for an hour four days a week.”

Despite the limitations, Mercedes hit the ground running.

Her personal teachers started with letter sounds and comprehension and have moved to building words and sentences. When Mercedes comes across a word she doesn’t know, Elnora and Ruthie have her write it out on a notecard, which they review at the end of each session. Progress has been difficult to measure, but Mercedes has her goals set high.

“I do got to keep practicing reading if I want to do something for myself,” Mercedes said.

She also wants to keep working on spelling, writing and to learn some math skills.

Her tutors have voiced goals for their student as well.

“What I would like her to do is be motivated enough to grab a book and read to others at the home,” said Ruthie who retired last May after more than 41 years in Natchez schools.

Elnora said she and Ruthie would do whatever it takes to work with Mercedes to get her where she wants to be.

Some days are harder than others, and Mercedes finds it difficult to concentrate when Ruthie and Elnora push her to learn.

When her mind wanders, they remind her of the task at hand. As Mercedes successfully finishes her work for the day, high-fives, hugs and the occasional treat are shared, and she is all smiles.

Davis has noticed the changes. Mercedes is more positive and is always laughing and grinning after working with Ruthie and Elnora.

“As long as I have (a) Mrs. Washington with me, sounding the words out, it cheers me up to work,” Mercedes said. “It’s great that they are helping me a whole lot. It’s great to be me.”

Mercedes Costley, at top, hugs her tutor Elnora Washington after reading sentences aloud during a tutoring session at Glenburney Nursing Home. At center, Washington helps Costley sound out the name “Sally” as they go over note cards. Washington has Costley write down words she has problems with and then goes back over them at the end of the tutoring session. At bottom, nurse Elenda Foley helps Costley sound out a word while she reads the book “Oh, the Place You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss. One of her tutors gave her the book earlier that day.

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But officer, I can explain Excuses can get elaborate when people try to avoid tickets

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y wife is having a baby, and I need testified to me that the reason he was speeding to get to the hospital quickly. I down the road and driving in a reckless manneed to get home to use the bath- ner was so that he could throw the dope out of room. My dog jumped on my feet the car.”

When former Adams County Sheriff and pressed down on the Tommy Ferrell was a deputy, he encoungas pedal. Those aren’t my drugs, I’m just tered a similarly honest offender. Out on holding them for a friend. patrol, he pulled over a driver on suspiAll are excuses used by people trying cion of DUI after seeing the driver swerve to talk their way out of traffic tickets or across the road. arrests, maybe even legitimately.

“This guy was huge, but when I stopped Occasionally, a driver wants to protest him he was very cordial and helpful,” the citation he has received, and at those Ferrell said. “When I asked him if he had times he has to explain his stories to the been drinking, he said, ‘Yeah, I have been judge.

McGlothin drinking but I am not drunk.’”

And sometimes, those stories lack the Ferrell said he was leery of the man belegitimacy needed to cause of his size, but he asked him how he get out of a ticket.

Story by had been drinking but wasn’t drunk. The In Ferriday, the man replied that he wasn’t inebriated bemayor also serves as Vershal Hogan the town’s judge and cause he had been drinking vodka.

“I said to him, ‘Is there a difference that meant that durwhen you drink vodka?’” Ferrell said. ing his four terms, former Mayor Glen “The man told me, ‘When I drink whisky, McGlothin would often catch it on both I get drunk, but when I drink vodka only ends of a traffic ticket — people would Mayfield my feet get drunk.’” complain to Town Hall when they got When Sheriff Chuck Mayfield was workit, later they would lambaste him in the ing as an agent for Metro Narcotics, he courtroom when he handed down a senheard his fair share of excuses from sustence during traffic court. pects about why they shouldn’t be charged A few years ago, McGlothin had a dewith a drug violation. fendant appear before him on charges of In one instance, a man who had been failure to appear for traffic court. arrested for selling cocaine used the old “When I asked him why he didn’t standby — the drugs in his pocket weren’t show for court, he said it was because his. he didn’t have a ride,” McGlothin said.

Ferrell “When we said, ‘The cocaine isn’t yours? “‘You towed it,’ he told me.”

We found it in your pants,’ he replied, While that may have presented the de‘These aren’t my pants,’” Mayfield said. fendant a problem, McGlothin said he “He said, ‘These are my brother’s pants.” had still expected him to appear in court.

Another time, officers found drugs in the “I said, ‘Of course we towed it — you console of a car driven by a married couple didn’t have any headlights, brake lights, from out of town. registration or license plate and you had “The dope was in the center console, and bald tires,’” he said. the wife was sitting on one side and said In other instances, someone might end that it belonged to the husband, and he up being a little more honest than is good Vess was on the other side saying that belonged for them.

During one of those instances, Justice Court to her, that he didn’t know anything about it,” Judge Charlie Vess had a defendant admit to Mayfield said. “I’ve seen people pass the blame one crime while trying to morally justify an- before, but never a husband and wife.”

But sometimes husbands and wives get emother.

“About 15 years ago, I had a fellow that was broiled in each other’s daily goings-on.

And that was what led one day to Ferrell givcharged with reckless driving, speeding and a misdemeanor drug charge,” Vess said. “He ing police his own sort of story, telling Natchez

Police officers they didn’t have to worry about arresting — or shooting — the woman with the shotgun on Martin Luther King Jr. Street — she was his wife.

It started with lunch. Ferrell had taken his wife, Carole, out to eat, and he was taking her back to work in his patrol car. As the car was stopped at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and Jefferson streets, Ferrell said his police radio, “lit up that a man was running down Martin Luther King Jr. Street with a gun, chasing another man.”

A moment later, a man came sprinting past the car. Moments after that, another man followed. He had a gun.

Both men ran into the parking lot of a business around the corner, and Ferrell turned on his blue lights, wheeled behind them in the car and, getting out, pulled his pistol.

“I was yelling for the man with the gun to drop the gun, and both men were trying to tell me their side of the story, but unfortunately both of them were talking with their hands,” he said.

“He still had that gun, and he kept pointing it at me, and I was starting to pull the trigger when I heard this sound.”

The sound he heard was one that law enforcement officials universally recognize, he said.

“We heard the sound of that round being chambered into a shotgun, and we froze,” Ferrell said. “My wife had taken my shotgun out of my car, had taken aim at all of us and said, ‘Drop the gun.”

“We were all sort of standing there in a line, and we were all screaming at her ‘don’t shoot’ because that gun was loaded with buckshot. If she had shot, she would have shot me, the bad guy with the gun and the other guy.”

It was then that backup from the Natchez Police Department arrived, and Ferrell said he understood that it must have been confusing to responding officers.

“We were all lined up, screaming at this woman with the gun, she is laid across the hood of the sheriff ’s car and the police are streaming into the parking lot, and they don’t know who is who,” he said.

In the end, the situation got sorted out. The man with the pistol went to jail; Carole did not.

The man with the pistol’s excuse was not good enough.

Carole’s was.

THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT

ADVERTISER’S INDEX Adams County Airport Commission ...................................... 15

Durham School Services ..........................................................119

Natchez Manor ............................................................................120

Adams County Christian School ................................................6

William P. Dickey, III, D.M.D., PLLC ........................................... 28

Natchez Pathology Laboratory ................................................ 55

Adams County Circuit Clerk ....................................................112

Elliott Electric Supply ................................................................119

Natchez Pilgrimage Tours, Inc. ...............................................120

Adams County Sheriff’s Office ................................................. 11

Enersteel, Inc. ................................................................................. 92

Natchez Regional Medical Center .............................................2

Air Evac Lifteam Natchez Base, Inc. ......................................112

Entergy.............................................................................................. 81

Natchez Regional Medical Center .......................................... 82

AJFC Community Action Agency .......................................... 34

Farm Bureau Insurance .............................................................120

Natchez The Magazine ............................................................... 92

American Medical Response .................................................... 15

Ferriday, LA Grouping ................................................................. 87

Natchez Total Fitness .................................................................113

Anderson Medical Clinic of Natchez ...................................119

Field Memorial Community Hospital ..................................118

Natchez Veterinary Clinic ........................................................110

Arthur’s Tire Sales & Service ....................................................120

Funeral Home and Burial Services Guide ............................ 84

Natchez Water Works .................................................................. 48

BASF – The Chemical Company ............................................118

Go-Mart ............................................................................................ 10

Open Air MRI of Miss-Lou ........................................................110

Bergeron & Plauche, LLC ............................................................ 59

Gillon Group PLLC, The ............................................................... 41

Paul Green & Associates ............................................................. 93

Blankenstein’s Supplies and Equipment .............................. 11

Grand Village of the Natchez Indians ..................................114

Personal Homecare Servics ....................................................... 49

Britton & Koontz Bank ............................................................... 20

H. Hal Garner Antiques & Interiors ......................................... 93

Piggly Wiggly of Port Gibson .................................................113

Brookhaven Urology .................................................................114

Heritage Manor Health and Rehab Center .......................... 49

Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken ............................................113

Business Card Directory ........................................ 76, 77, 78, 79

Home Hardware Center ...........................................................118

Port Gibson Reveille ..................................................................113

Byrne Insurance Agency ..........................................................114

Intensive Home Healthcare Inc. .............................................. 89

Premo Stallone, Inc. ..................................................................... 31

Callon Petroleum .......................................................................... 37

Isle of Capri Casino/Hotel .......................................................... 72

Promise Hospital of Miss-Lou ................................................... 72

Camelot Leisure Living ............................................................... 55

Jack & Stella, A Children’s Boutique ....................................... 74

REDCO, Radcewicz Exploration & Drilling Co. .................... 59

Cartoon Map ........................................................................... 62, 63

Key Rehab and Associates, Inc. ................................................ 59

Riverland Medical Center .......................................................... 74

Cathedral School .......................................................................... 19

Kimbrell Office Supply ..............................................................103

Riverview RV Resort ...................................................................115

Celebrate Business ....................................................................... 88

Magnolia Bluffs Casino .............................................................103

Rives & Reynolds Lumber Company Inc. .............................. 93

Cellular Plus .................................................................................... 72

Magnolia House ............................................................................ 40

Rogers Lawn and Garden .......................................................... 10

Central Louisiana Technical Community College ............. 40

Markets, The ................................................................................... 30

Silas Simmons, LLP ..........................................................................7

City of Natchez ............................................................................122

McDonald’s ........................................................................................4

Southwest Distributors, Inc. ..................................................... 41

City of Vidalia ....................................................................................3

Medical Directory ........................................................... 94, 95, 96

Southwest Mississippi Electric Power Association ........... 44

Colvin’s Pharmacy ......................................................................115

Mr. Whiskers ................................................................................... 74

Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center ......16, 123

Concordia Bank & Trust Company .......................................... 81

Mrs. Holder’s Antiques ..............................................................119

Sports Center ................................................................................. 89

Concordia Metal, Inc. ................................................................110

Natchez Adams County Chamber of Commerce ............120

Spotlight on Business ..................................................... 100, 101

Concordia Parish Tax Assessor ...............................................115

Natchez Adams School District ............................................... 67

Tensas State Bank ......................................................................... 89

Copiah-Lincoln Community College ...................................110

Natchez After Hours Clinic ........................................................ 58

Trinity Episcopal Day School .................................................... 20

Cotton Alley Cafe ........................................................................115

Natchez Children’s Home Services ......................................... 65

United Mississippi Bank ............................................................. 35

Crye-Leike Stedman Realtors, Inc. .......................................... 36

Natchez Community Hospital ................................................124

United Way of the Miss-Lou ...................................................... 35

D & D Drilling & Exploration Inc. ............................................. 20

Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau ..........................108

Vidalia Dock & Storage ............................................................... 65

Davidson’s Package Store .......................................................... 34

Natchez Grand Hotel ................................................................... 44

Woodville Republican, The ....................................................... 28

Delta Bank .....................................................................................114

Natchez, Inc. .................................................................................118

Worship Directory ............................................................ 104, 105

Delta Rentals, Inc. ......................................................................... 93

Natchez Little Theatre ................................................................. 65

Dunleith ........................................................................................... 37

Natchez Mall ................................................................................... 28

121