The Coast lost loved ones young and old in 2021. Here are some of their stories.
They were 104 years old and 18 years old and even younger.
They fought at Iwo Jima and volunteered to provide medical care in Cameroon.
They organized ballroom dancing groups and played bridge and dared anyone to beat them at Scrabble.
They were born on the Point in East Biloxi, in Vung Tau, Vietnam, in East Germany and “in a clapboard house built in the 1800’s in Saucier.”
They all had ties to the Coast, and in 2021, their families and friends mourned their loss.
At the Gulfport Senior Center, at Pass Christian High School, in the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, and all over south Mississippi and the world, they are missed.
Here are a few of their names and stories.
January
- George Sekul, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College football player and coach who became one of the winningest coaches in National Junior College Athletic Association history.
- Clyde Jerome Williams, Gulfport community activist and two-time mayoral candidate.
- David Allen “Hank” Rogers, a building and development official in Biloxi and D’Iberville who oversaw the construction of The Promenade and Scarlet Pearl Casino.
- Benjamin F. Gibson, an attorney and one of the first Black federal judges in the United States. During his retirement in Gulfport, he founded the Mississippi Ballroom Dancers group and performed from New Orleans to Pensacola.
- David Mohler, owner of the beloved TatoNut Donut Shop in downtown Ocean Springs.
- Moseley Allen Mallette, lifelong Vancleave resident, father of five, cattleman, and founder of Moseley Mallette Farms and Mallette Brothers Trucking.
- Thomas Albert and Virginia Verlon Windham Turner passed away within two days of each other after 65 years of marriage.
- James Franklin Hardy, 31-year employee of the City of Gulfport, most recently as Supervisor in the Water and Sewer Department.
February
- Michael Anthony Boutte, Sr., an Air Force veteran and Hancock County Sheriff’s deputy who was shot and killed in the line of duty.
- Della McCaughan, a pioneering marine biology teacher at Biloxi High School who wrote her own textbooks and inspired generations of scientists, including a Nobel Prize-winner.
- William Lee Brumfield, businessman, developer and philanthropist.
- Beryl Davis, first female rural letter-carrier at the Ocean Springs Post Office and founder of Davis Flowers.
Dr. Donna Hialetha Evans Alexander, a Gulfport native who practiced medicine on the Coast for more than 20 years.
- George Gerald “Jerry” Everett, Biloxi history teacher who later pursued a 20-year film career in Los Angeles and New Orleans.
- Dr. John Joseph McCloskey, Col. U.S. Army, retired, practiced neurosurgery at Singing River Hospital from 1979-2014.
March
- Phyllis Ann Luttman, Col. U.S. Air Force, retired, served as a flight nurse and flight nurse instructor during the Vietnam War and helped design equipment used on aeromedical flights around the world.
- Christine Louise Dedeaux, founder of Chris’ Beauty Salon in 1961.
- Lorena Josephine (Scheeler) Hussey, 104, a lifelong resident of the Gulf Coast who, having outlived most of her contemporaries at age 96, started playing cards and attending ceramics classes at the Gulfport Senior Center to make a new set of friends.
- Walter L. Walker, Jr., a World War II veteran and owner of Walker’s Radio and Television Repair Service.
- Hershel Otho Ladner, one of the Mississippi Highway Patrol’s first accident reconstructionists, who shared his knowledge with a generation of troopers.
- Elizabeth (Brant) Davenport, a seamstress who founded a family business creating custom window treatments for homes across the Coast.
- Ronny Lee Hurlbert, a Gulfport police officer who became an ordained minister in 1972 and held crusades as “The Preaching Policeman”.
April
- Allen T. Curry, Ocean Springs School District Superintendent from 1971 to 1990.
- Paul B. Johnson, Sr., Harrison County Constable of District 2 for 36 years and youngest barber in Mississippi at age 16.
Evelyn Louise (Vaughn) Fayard-DeBacco, a beauty shop owner who later earned an associate’s degree in applied science in electrical engineering and opened Fayard Electric.
- Robert “Poochie” Tartavoulle, former assistant Chief of Police in Waveland.
- Glennis Howard Martin, Gulfport native and 1997 Employee of the Year at Gulf Coast Medical Center.
- Patricia Fern Stewart, supervisor of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at the VA Medical Center in Biloxi and author of several research papers published in medical journals.
- Hazel Joyce Scott, supervisor of the Water and Sewerage Department for the City of Long Beach.
- Rita Ann Baldwin, director of the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen.
Marcella Goul, 102, a devoted military wife and mother who chose Gulfport for retirement with her husband. She was an avid bridge and Scrabble player and Red Cross volunteer.
May
- Dr. Isaac Fred Dale, III, an emergency room physician for 37 years.
- Mattie “Linda” Cunningham, known to Coast residents as the Woman Who Waved from the Porch of her home on MS 613 in Escatawpa.
- Rodolfo Benavides Rivera, a native of the Philippines who raised six children with his wife of 70 years, Milagros, and was proud of his 23-year career at the U.S. Navy Exchange Service Command in Gulfport after he immigrated to the U.S.
- Jaré Lyons Barkley, Air Force captain and surgeon at Memorial and Garden Park Hospitals.
- Dr. Gary M. Goulet, a chiropractor who volunteered at Ground Zero after 9/11, and loved ultra-running and all things New Orleans.
June
- Sue Negrotto, owner of Negrotto’s Seafood, Negrotto’s Gallery and Edgewater Wine & Liquor.
- John Steven “Steve” Broussard, a four-sport star at Notre Dame High School who later played for the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers.
- Carolyn Patterson Rushing, one of the first Black teachers at Gulfport’s North Central Elementary during integraton, later became a principal in the district.
- Dr. David Wilson Cook, assistant director at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and later holding a supervisory position at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, recognized as a national expert on seafood and food safety.
- Lynn Kay Pitalo Creel, an audiologist for 44 years, including as owner of Creel Hearing Center, and a Biloxi Shrimp Queen
- Cayce Seal, a 28-year-old Bay St. Louis father and Entergy lineman who died in an accident at work, just before he had planned to ask his girlfriend to marry him.
July
Dr. Herbert Giles, a native of Yazoo City, served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and as a flight surgeon was stationed in Seoul. He spent 27 years working at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Biloxi.
Nguyen Van Nguyen, a former commercial shrimper named “Shrimp King” at the 2001 Blessing of the Fleet.
Magruder “Mac” Sullivan Corban, chief of surgery and chief of the medical staff at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport.
James Ronald “Ron” Grove, Sun Herald staff writer who covered the 1982 Harrison County jail fire that killed nearly 30 people.
August
- Cleveland Nathaniel Williams, a longtime coach and athletic director in the Bay-Waveland and Pass Christian School Districts, and member of the Bay-Waveland School Board.
- Dr. Joseph Mitchell, Jr. chose to open his OB/GYN practice with his wife, a fellow doctor, in Gulfport in 1975 because it had the country’s lowest rate of doctors per capita. The couple also traveled to provide care in Cameroon and Zaire, and Mitchell volunteered to provide medical services at the Harrison County jail.
- David Lee Jackson, a musician who played guitar for B.B. King but was proudest of playing regularly for St. John Baptist Church, where he was a member.
- Reva Rose Schultz Hopkins, a Biloxian, educator of children with special needs, dedicated mom, and “every party’s most flamboyant celebrator.”
- Jerry Lee, of Lucedale, died after part of Highway 26 collapsed in George County following Hurricane Ida.
- Kent Brown, a father and pipefitter from Leakesville, died in the same accident.
- Joseph Luong Bui, born in Vung Tau, Vietnam, moved to Biloxi in 1982 and launched a career as an entrepreneur, first as a shrimper with his own boat, then as a grocery store owner, mechanic, and real estate investor.
September
- June Lawrence Migues, salutatorian of the Biloxi High School class of 1944, restaurant owner and lifelong accountant and income tax preparer.
- Margie Redmond Parmeter, a Saucier native who drove a Harrison County school bus for 25 years and later chronicled the ups and downs of her life in her book, ‘The Three Lives of Margie’.
- Gene Warr, owner of Gene Warr’s Men’s Shop, the Village Drummer and Warr’s Men’s Clothing, and involved with the Biloxi Planning Commission and Biloxi and Gulfport chambers of commerce.
- Bruce Cary Strong, a six-term Harrison County Justice Court judge and former Biloxi police officer, as well as a self-taught auctioneer.
- William Allison, Sr., president of Merchants Bank & Trust and of the Harrison County Development Commission.
- Denise Rachelle Caldwell Obi, a counselor who launched her mental health career as MAP Coordinator and Children’s Counselor at Gulf Coast Mental Health Center in Gulfport.
- Bernard Phillip Rosado, a lifelong Biloxi resident who worked as a chef at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum and loved cooking for family and friends, too.
- Amanda Williams, an “amazing mom” who died from injuries sustained after the collapse of part of Highway 26 in George County.
- Reynold Sefton, Jr., former commanding officer at the Naval Construction Center in Gulfport.
- J.F. “Jeff” Haynie, a World War II veteran who survived the Battle of the Bulge and earned a Bronze Star.
October
- Charles J. Brenke, Jr., U.S. Navy Submarine Corps member, Ingalls employee, and commercial beekeepr with hives across Jackson County.
- Parmilee Krob, co-owner of Christian Book Shoppe, which grew to the largest privately-owned book shop in Mississippi by 1994.
- Judge John C. Gargiulo, U.S. Magistrate Judge of the Southern District of Mississippi, father of three and military veteran.
- Louis C. Whittle, Sr., known as “Old Folk,” enjoyed working at his shoe shining business on the first floor of the Hancock Bank building because it allowed him to befriend people walking in.
- John Anthony Toche, a native of the Point in Biloxi and a master boat builder known around the world.
- Leroy Hardy, a Gulfport physical education teacher and championship-winning basketball and football coach, and member of the Gulfport Sports Hall of Fame.
- Inez Thomas, owner of long-standing East Biloxi restaurant Inez Lounge & Cafe, mother of five, and dedicated supporter of the Biloxi High School basketball team.
Wilfred Vincent “Kutta” Caillavet won a Purple Heart for his service at Okinawa during World War II. He worked in food service at the Biloxi VA and as a bar tender and cab driver, and became known for giving imaginative nicknames to coworkers and friends.
- Monika Karwiese Stratakos, a native of East Germany who moved to the U.S. and became a cosmetologist, running the Villa Maria Beaty Salon in Ocean Springs from 1972 to 2019.
- Dimple Breazeale, an employee at Three Sisters Florist for 20 years who volunteered her skills to make flower arrangements at her church, and a lover of travel.
- Kevin Lloyd Hardy, owner and operator of A1 Trucking, and in training for the deaconship when he passed away.
- Bill Luckett, partner in the Ground Zero Blues Club, slated to open a new location in Biloxi.
- Abby Bosarge, who excelled at Pass Christian High School and on the soccer field, and checked off a bucket list with family and friends as she battled leukemia.
- Steve V. Pemberton, who worked in Alaskan oil fields before moving home to the Coast, patenting several designs and opening Fast Flow Pumps.
November
- Brent David Anderson II, a 22-year-old believed to be the first infant in Mississippi diagnosed with Cornelia de Lange Syndrom. Though he never spoke, he touched many lives and charmed teachers and classmates at Bay High School.
- Edward Aubrey Marshall, a World War II veteran who fought in the Pacific and a businessman who owned and operated Marshall Books in Gulfport.
- Avereese Harvey, an air traffic controller who retired as chief of the Gulfport Tower in 1987, and never met a stranger.
- Father Raymond Anthony Jones, ordained into the priesthood at St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis in 1967. He served as pastor of Notre Dame Catholic Church in St. Martinville, Louisiana.
- Emry McNeil, a Mississippi Power engineer and manager and later a member of the Biloxi City Council.
- Charles Kent Webb, a 30-year employee of the Mississippi Air National Guard and founding member of the Long Beach Yacht Club.
December
- Mary “Maebeth” Elizabeth Marshall, a Pass Christian native who worked for Simon & Schuster in New York City before returning home.
- Billy Gene Hubbard, a coach and educator inducted into the Ocean Springs Sports Hall of Fame.
- Dennis “Danny” Clark, the “Cowboy” of Gulfport and Bay St. Louis.
- Lionel Antoine Sr., Biloxi native who played for the Chicago Bears in the 1970s and is believed to be the first Biloxian to play in the NFL. He later returned home to mentor young people.
- Charles Kerr Lansdale, Col, U.S. Air Force, retired, served in World War II with the Merchant Marines before a 30-year career in the Air Force that took him to Japan, Vietnam and elsewhere.
Isabelle Taft
Sun Herald