Remembering Camille

When we were allowed into the Coastal area a few days after Camille in 1969 the recovery of bodies was still underway. All that was cleared was a few roads. Parts of highway 90 was passable. I will never forget the piles of debris or the smell. People found bodies as they cleaned up their property and they washed up on the beach. There was no electricity and no way to keep the bodies cool and they couldn't be buried until they were identified and the cemeteries cleared. Finally they were taken to the ice houses and kept there.

For 40 years, since August 1969 I have thought about Faith, Hope and Charity at least once a year. They were unidentified white women found in the Pass Christian area. One was found near City Hall. After the storm they were placed in gray metal caskets and buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Gulfport. Wade Guice, who was Civil Defence director had tombstones placed on the graves. On these he had descriptions engraved in the hope that they might one day be claimed. He listed their race, age, height, weight, and on each the inscription includes such descriptions as "4 rings and earrings or black rubber boots". They haven't been claimed in the 40 years since the storm. How do people have no one to claim them? They had to be some one's daughter or mother or sister or wife. Each year there is a short ceremony at the women's graves. Although they were not claimed by relatives they are remembered by people on the Coast.

Camille claimed 13 of the Williams' family. Paul Williams survived along with one son, Malcolm, and his son-in-law, Erin Burton. The next morning, with the assistance of rescue workers, Williams and the other two family survivors began the grisly task of recovering the bodies of their loved ones. The irony of the incident was that the Williams' house had escaped the storm unharmed. Chief Jerry Peralta remembered watching the recovery of the bodies from Live Oak Cemetery. "The thing that hurt me most was Williams with his family, as I watched him carrying those bodies. He carried them out of the cemetery and laid them on the sidewalk", stated Peralta, during an interview prior to his death in 1982. Williams buried his large family in DeLisle, a small community just north of Pass Christian. The burial included his wife, 8 children, and 2 grandchildren.