Having received many queries for information throughout the years, I am posting herewith some email snippets that reflect memories of Pass Christian. I welcome such queries and their responses with anecdotal information about the Pass and the sharing of their photographs.

My name is Margaret Loesch, and my father was Brig. General L. F. Loesch; we owned the beautiful home at 625 East Beach from 1952 until the mid-1960's, and later ( after my father was, sadly, killed in a plane crash ) my mother, brother and I moved to the "Ewing House" ( as we always called it ) at 829 E. Beach, where my mother lived until the early 1970's.

Although we traveled and lived around the world, we always considered the Pass as our home ( which was exactly why my parents had purchased there, so as to give my brother and I a sense of roots not usually enjoyed among military families ); we spent many summer vacations there, and many holidays, and after my father died, we lived there fulltime. I so miss Pass Christian; although I've traveled the world, it still remains uniquely special. Thus, it was with great appreciation that I eagerly read your book, sent to me by a friend from Gulfport. It brought back a lot of memories, including Camille, of course ( we were living at the 829 E. Scenic Drive house by then, and yes, we were in the house when the storm hit).

Unfortunately, my mother ( Maggie Loesch, originally from Meridian) passed away in 1995; she had been living in the guest house I built for her on our property here in North Hollywood, Calif. She would have just loved reading your book! You mentioned in your book that I had something to do with the Muppet Babies tv series; yes, I did; actually, I was the Executive Producer of the series, along with Jim Henson; he and I were partnered on that series for six years, until he died, while I was CEO of Marvel Productions. In 1990, I left Marvel and the Muppet Babies to become the founding President & CEO of the FOX Kids Networks, Worldwide, where I stayed until the end of 1997. It was with great irony that in early 1998, I became President of Jim Henson Television; I left that company ten months later to run a cable network purchased by both The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark.

And now, even as Pres. & CEO of Odyssey Network, I am often reminded of the Gulf Coast and "the Pass" during my travels around the country. Still, to this day, the Pass remains the loveliest of towns, etched in my memory forever. I'm so happy that the gambling hasn't come to PC.

I can still remember the smell of the summer rains, and think of the summer breezes wafting through our house ( we had no air conditioning in those days...that would have cost us a small fortune!!); when I tell my son about the "sweet" smell of burning leaves in the fall as we kids had to rake and rake and rake all those piles of magnolia leaves, he looks at me as if I've lost my mind ! For, as you might guess, in Southern California, we could NEVER burn leaves, due to fire dangers and air pollution restrictions! And he can't even begin to imagine the freedom we all felt as kids as we'd head off for the day on our bikes to explore regions unknown throughout the Pass, making sure to be back just before dinner! Here, in Los Angeles, kids don't enjoy that freedom, for we parents all fear some maniac might grab them!

My son is lucky if I let him ride his bike four blocks to another child's house, and then he has to call me immediately, lest I start a parent's patrol looking for him! Well, so much for "the good old days!" I'm sorry to babble on so much. I just really wanted to let you know how very much I enjoyed your book. I don't get "home " to often, but I do keep in touch with some friends still living there. My dream is to someday buy one of those lovely old homes on Scenic Drive! To think, my mother, brother and I sold the house at 625 E. Bch., now worth well over a million dollars, for a mere $ 75,000!!

My grandfather, Frank Mendoza, originally owned the Grey Castle Hotel and sold it to the Jesuit Priests. I would be very interested in getting copies of pictures of The Grey Castle Hotel. Over the years my pictures have been lost, we only have one picture of my grandmother on the front steps. My grandparents also owned the Miramar Hotel at one time. If you can be of some help it would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you.

I was wondering if you or Mr Bourdin know of any pictures of James Sherman’s first and second wives,Amelia Amanda MacFarlane and Bird Raun? If there are any they might help me in a comparison of some photographs I have. I am now copying a generation chart of the Sherman side which goes back as far as Plymouth,Mass. to send to you. Thank you for your attention.

Would like to know if you or anyone there has copies of James Sherman's “The Road I Came” or “Pretty and Fragant Flowers of the South” ? I wondered if I got these reprinted would anyone be interested in buying them and the money could be donated to the historical society. They are small books and I don't know how much of interest they would be that anyone would purchase them. Let me know what you think when you have time.

I forwarded it to a cousin, Nick Wright, who has been also researching the family and will check all my "stuff" this week. We have questions on the cemetery plot or plots that my husband and I saw last year so as soon as I can gather my thoughts I'll get back to you. We believe the "archie" to be Hamilton Wright's second wife, Virginia's son by her previous marriage to Rutsen Van Rensselaer. Rutsen died in 1841 and Virginia and Hamilton married in1846. I'll go into more detail later. We would appreciate it if, when you're near the cemetery, you could see if the stone has just Wright on it or HM also. We could not remember. We did not see an Archie stone which makes me wonder if there are two plots. I promise to add more.

I recently purchased one of your books, “All About Camille”, and I wanted to let you know that I was impressed with the wealth of information it contains. It is rare to find someone who has such a specialty as yours. The reason I purchased the book is that I am working on a novel that is closely tied in to Hurricane Camille. My family and I used to travel every summer from Houston, TX, to Fitzgerald, GA, to visit family. I clearly remember the devastation we saw when we went through the Biloxi area in 1970, after the storm had her way with the area. I also met a man in Washington, D.C., who had lost his pregnant wife, mother and gardener during the hurricane. They were all washed out to sea, it appears, as their bodies were never found. He woke up 2 weeks later in the hospital at Keesler AFB, having been in a coma since the storm. It left him emotionally scarred. Those events led to my decision to base a character out of Bay St. Louis, MS. That is the convoluted way that led me to your book.

Thank you for your response, the facts you stated was correct, at the time my father and mother owned a day care called Tiny Tots nursery that was located in Gulfport, across the street from what I refer to as a tavern. it was two blocks off of the main, the reason for the reference to the business is because, the Fayard Trucking Co., building was painted a shade of pink that my father wanted to paint the Day Care center, that morning that he drove past the building he sw the Negro come out of the building with blood on his clothes, it turns out that he had beaten the victims to death with a golf club and trophy, it was a very brutal murder. There are quite a few facts that I remember, such as several attempts on my father's life before he testified at the murder trial, is the man still in prison or did they put him to death?

My name is Glen MacLeod and I am librarian at the Zoe Valle Library in Chester, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Library is actually the former summer home (1900 to 1926) of Alfred R. Lightfoot, who was born in Pass Christian in the mid 1800's. I was wondering if you know anything about Mr. Lightfoot or his family. His wife, Zoe Valle Lightfoot gave the property to the municipality for use as a library when she died in 1926. We are trying to mount an historical display on the library and are trying to find out all we can on the Lightfoots.

My name is Caroline Patton, I though may be you could help with my search for my grandfather. His name was John Howard Fletcher , born in Pass Christian Mississippi, July 31,1879. So I was told. I have found many discrepancies in my search. Records are few due to hurricanes etc. It was said that he ran away from home at an early age because his father had remarried and he did not like his new step mother. He was known to be a big story teller. He did however end up in New York and married my grandmother about 1909 (where I am not sure). They had three children in New York. Each child's birth cert is different his name changes and place of birth changes from Pass Christian to New Orleans (may be cause know one would know where pass christian was). The real question was, was there something else he was he running from? Know one knows who his parent were, we think he did have siblings. He may have lived in a Mansion in the Gulf area. Do you know of any prominent Fletcher families in the area in the late 1800's. that may fit this description? The oldest records I have found are census records from 1920 where they lived in Buffalo NY. Prior to that my grandmother exists, but my grandfather is no where to be found. Any help would be appreciated.Or maybe another historian or local long time resident I could contact.

My name is Janell Thomas-Cody. I am making some inquiries about a family that used to live in your area. They are my great-grandparents Thomas Mason and he was married to Ethel Robinson-Mason. My mother and I are doing our family tree and we are wanting to find out when they where born and when they died and how their parents where. The had a child from this union my grandmother and her name was Ethel Adine Mason. We know that my great-grandmother died in 1929 and my great-granfather after 1930.

I am native of DeLisle, MS. I am a graduate of Pass Christian High and Mississippi State University. I am a descendant of the Lizana's, Dedeaux's, Lizana's, and Ashley's. Currently I am working on a personal "historical library" about my unique hometown and culture. There is very little information about the Black Creoles of the Gulf Coast - particularly Pass Christian, DeLisle, and Bay St. Louis. Other information that I would like to acquire includes the detailed history of the settlement of these areas and plantations (if any) that my ancestors may be affiliated with.

Thanks again, your emails are also very helpful. i think it's great that people are preserving something of history. two other sets of my great greats were rutilius ulysses mitchell and eliza angeline holden mitchell and elvira warden marson and stephen marson. they were all from

gainesville and the test site displaced and destroyed the whole community. my mother lived down there in a house that was next to eliza poitevant's old house and she remains rather mournful about the whole affair of the test site. another branch of mitchells settled at

Thank you for the document. As one who has just finished editing a book on Mississippi musicians, I find it very frustrating to find more and more great Mississippi musicians who need to be recognized. As you know, these individuals do not appear in regular research sources. It is only by people like you that we have documented so many great Mississippi musicians.

Has any of your research uncovered the home of Louis Christian Miltenberger in Pass Christian? He was my ancestor, and our family lore relates that (because he was known as Christian Miltenberger) that Pass Christian was somehow named after him or his 2nd home there (he was a resident of New Orleans).

> > seeking information about a ship carrying Indians west during the removal that sank off the shore of Pass Christian, Ms. I found a brief reference in a borrowed book and have lost contact with the owner. The sources I'm finding indicate the ship was boarded in Pass Christian but sank in the Mississippi....

I was looking at the Henderson Point page. My wife and I spent our Honeymoon there. Her Uncle had built a cottage thereafter a previous Hurricane had blown the first one away. The second one was not to be blown away, as he had the walls & foundation poured strong enough for a 10 story building. (He built most of the overpasses & bridges in N.O.) {Including that STUPID circle over the Airline}. The last time I was back there I tried to find it but after 50 years everything changed so much I couldn't even find Henderson Point.

I'm trying to research the families of Arthur Marmion, John Dale Nelson and Liversedge. Do any of your works touch on any of these families? One obit for Eloise Marmion said she was from a prominent family in Pass Christian but I can't seem to find any references to that. Some of these family members are buried in St. Paul's Cemetery in Pass Christian but I am told by the church there most records were lost during Hurricane Camile.

My name is Paul Jermyn and I live in Long Beach, MS. I work at Stennis for the Boeing Company testing the RS-68 rocket engine. It's the new 650,000 engine the powers Boeings new Delta 4 Rocket. First, let me tell you that I've read most of your books and have enjoyed them immensely. I often refer to them when trying to identify old photos I have collected and when trying to learn more about postcards I've purchased for my collection. I have about 2000 old postcards of the coast dating from the early 1900's to the 40's in my collection. Some day, I'd like to have you look through them. I have quite a few unique cards you might enjoy. I also collect old photos of the coast. I have lots of them I haven't identified yet. I'd like your opinion on the attached photo of an old church I have. The photo has a label on the back that says "Gulf Photo Service". Any help identifing this photo would be appreciated.

What a delight to get these! And thanks particularly for Lost Images! My aunt's house (Phelan) was listed in the section in your Historical District book on property that was lost in Hurricane Camille, along with their neighbors, the Raffertys. I was happy to read of the restoration work that has been done on the town. I have a photo of their house, but unfortunately, it's not good quality.

The Lost Images book included a section on the Hechts' Japanese gardens, which is where my family used to visit during our trips to the Pass. At that time, the property was privately owned by a family named Harrison (I think). I have a photocopy of a photo of the pool, which was a lovely stone affair that had two small islands in it with trees, I remember. The pool was shady and perfect for people with sun sensitivities. I will try to get a nice copy made and send it to you. Did the rest of the property survive? It was so pretty--it had a stream running through it with little Japanese bridges going over it in various spots.

Dayton Robinson has referred me to you. I live in Pintlala, Alabama (Montgomery County) where Sam Manac owned and operated a tavern on the Old Federal Road. I'm tying to learn all I can about Moniac. My immediate quest is to locate his burial place. While I understand that this cannot be done with precision and that others have made the attempt, I do have questions which I would like to resolve before publishing an article in the Pintlala Historical Association Newsletter:

I am seeking info and U seem to be the man that would know. I am looking for a burial place of a great ancestor. I"ve searched in vain thru most sites. The grave or burial site ( may be mass) I am seeking is of Sam (Takkes Hardjo) Moniac. He died there in 1836. The boats were departing from there to the Mississippi river. Sam was with the Creek during removal to Oklahoma when he died there at Pass Christian. I found he was buried there thru the letters & writings of Genearl T. S. Woodward. If u could help me I would be very grateful. I'd like to visit the site whatever it turns out to be.

Overall there were no great new revelations, but for me there was some clarity on certain points. My biggest difficulty has been to understand the various title transfers during those early years. It may be impossible to nail down the title thing completely because of the loss of records, etc.or misfiled information. For example, one document that Nap found by accident, had Juan's name spelled Quails. Unless one stumbles upon such a document, how would a researcher ever find it? Since my goal has always been to collect a copy of every original document still existing concerning the family, I was excited to get the copy of the original hand written deed to the Government for the lighthouse property, actually signed by Juan and his wife. I did not have that. The main document that still eludes me is the deed from Juan to Judah Benjamin in 1937 for "certain parts" of Cat island. I would give anything to find that one.