Life in the Miss-Lou on Feb. 28, 2016, is about today. It’s about the 300 years that brought us to today. It’s about 300 years more that may be to come. It’s about us.

This is our place, our time.

Inside today’s edition of The Democrat you’ll find Profile 2016, a special publication focused on the people, places and things that make the Miss-Lou tick. This year’s theme “Our place, Our time,” seeks to focus not on the past or the future, but on how both the past and the future form the community today.

Profile tells the stories of dozens of area residents. Just a few of them share their loves, dislikes and dreams for the Miss-Lou here, since the best way to tell the story of our place and our time is through our people.

 

Brandon McCranie

Brandon McCranie wasted little time coming back to Natchez

The artist and musician grew up in town, attended the public schools, graduated from Delta State University and promptly returned home.

“People end up leaving Natchez thinking there is something better somewhere else and finding out there is not,” McCranie said. “I came back to Natchez as fast as I could.”

Not only is Natchez home but McCranie says his family and friends are here, and Natchez is where he learned what he wanted to do.

“I went to Trinity my freshman year, but I went back to Natchez High because of the art program,” he said. “I knew early on I wanted my career to be in the arts.”

Today, his bottle-cap artwork can be found all over the world, and on any given night, you can find him playing guitar and singing at one of the local bars.

“It’s not New Orleans, but we have a really good nightlife for a town this size,” McCranie said. “Either by myself or playing with my band, Mojo Mudd, you can find me somewhere.”

McCranie loves the arts scene here, but what he

really thinks drives him to want to be here are the people.

“The way people are treated here, it is just very welcoming,” he said. “You can come here from anywhere in the world, and if you talk to the right person, you can be invited into their home.

“It’s just a very inviting little community.”

If there’s one thing McCranie hopes changes in Natchez in the years to come, it’s people coming closer together.

“We are a small Southern town, but very progressive,” he said. “We want to be part of the new South. We can embrace our history, our past, but we should never let history keep us from moving forward.”

Read about McCranie’s weightloss success story on page 34 of Profile 2016. 

 

William Terrell

William Terrell knows news. The owner, publisher, photographer and delivery boy of The Bluff City Post knows the community too.

“I like to tell Natchez’s story,” he said. “I feel that whatever I do is from a positive standpoint. I try to say things to others to mold them so they can understand a little better about life and how it is, how people are treated.”

A life-long resident of Natchez, Terrell tries to stay integrated in the community, working with the Natchez Museum of African American Culture and History, the NAACP and the Greater St. James Baptist Church.

Natchez is a town that is slowly turning itself around from the losses of its industry 15 years ago, he said, but it has turned that corner. He said he knows Adams County could be considered remote, but with 449 square miles within its borders, landing a new large industry is certainly possible.

“I think Natchez is a good place to live, to raise your children, and there are some jobs coming into Natchez,” Terrell said.

“I love the fact that in our community we have a lot of things going on, but we are a close-knit community. I don’t see a great split in our community, and I think everybody is working to rebuild and mold the community.”

Terrell said he wished more residents would attend local government and civic meetings — and find ways to get more involved in general.

“It is a nice, beautiful place to live,” he said. “It affords good relationships, good family, and I call it home.”

Read about Terrell’s day — and night — job as a newspaper publisher on page 81 of Profile 2016.

 

Ava Walker

Ava Walker hasn’t been in Natchez very long because she hasn’t been in this world very long; she’s 8.

But she will tell you a thing or two about family and community. For example, home is where her family is.

Ava is a second-grade student at Cathedral School and likes to spend her time drawing, painting, playing piano, singing, dancing and practicing gymnastics.

Most of all, though, she likes spending time with her family.

“My community is where my family and friends are,” Ava said. “(Natchez) is my home because it’s where I’m growing up, and I have my family here.”

Like any wide-eyed child, Ava has high hopes for the future of her community. On her list is a wish for “everyone to stop polluting the air and water.”

Most of all, though, Ava hopes for unity among all of God’s people.

“I want God’s people coming together to get his work done,” she said.

Read about Ava and her expanding family on page 104 of Profile 2016.

 

Jayna Stogner

Jayna Stogner has built her life around family, faith and community.

Stogner is a Natchez native, and only lived outside the area briefly, when she went out-of-state for college studies.

“This is home,” she said. “It’s where I grew up — my family is here.”

Most of her day-to-day life revolves around work and getting out with her son with special needs, Nicholas, but there are a few things in the community that have a special place in her heart.

“I love the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race — it is one of the biggest things I look forward to every year,” she said. “I get to help the pilots with the balloons, and I am on the chase crew — it’s the one weekend I really get that break to go out and have fun.”

The Natchez Powwow is another one of those events, in part because she can include Nicholas, who is in a wheelchair.

“He loves the music, and we love to go out there and listen to them play,” she said.

While Stogner said she likes living in the community, a lack of wheelchair accessibility is something she would change.

“I think there should maybe be more awareness of handicapped accessibility,” she said. “I know walking (sidewalks) downtown there places with are steps, and in a few stores at times when you go in, you can’t get in and out through a store if the racks are real close together. There are also some handicapped parking places that don’t allow room for wheelchair ramp to go out.”

Read about Stogner’s devotion to her son Nicholas on page 27 of Profile 2016.

 

Allyson Elliott

Allyson Elliott’s family has deep Natchez roots.

Her grandfather attended Cathedral School — where Elliott later attended and now teaches — and played on the school’s first football team. Her dad attended the school until middle school.

Elliott, 29, was reared in the Fatherland Acres and Montebello neighborhoods and spent her childhood playing in the creeks and neighborhoods near the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians.

“I feel deeply connected to Natchez because my family is from here,” Elliott said. “I love listening to stories that my parents and grandparents would tell me about growing up in Natchez. Hearing those stories always made me feel even more secure and at home.”

Now she and husband Adam are making the community a home for their future through her photography hobby, his carpentry business and kayak and canoe river tours they also offer on weekends.

Elliott said she hopes to see her beloved hometown grow, and said she wants to help by creating those business opportunities.

“I wish that Natchez could attract more young people and families to our area,” Elliott said. “It is such a wonderful place, but opportunities are limited. I hope that Natchez continues to uphold the traditions and customs that make it such a special place.”

Read about Elliott’s chance to come home again on page 115 of Profile 2016.

 

Bryan Price

From behind the bar, Bryan Price has a unique view of Natchez — a city that doesn’t come without a few blemishes.

The longtime bartender says his drinks are a conversation starter so he can share the history of his town and what he loves about Natchez with hotel patrons.

Price is a Sicily Island, La., native and moved to Natchez after college tand after living in New York City for a few years.

“I’ve taken Natchez on as my second heart, my home,” he said. “I love the history of our town. I don’t care what color you are … you have some type of history here, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights.”

Despite Natchez’s rich history, diverse community and friendly people, the city is not without problems, Price said.

“Natchez in one sentence is —Natchez, a family — because Natchez is one big family, and I love that,” he said. “But just like any family, we have dysfunction. We need to stick together more in the community and support each other.”

Price sees Natchez becoming “a sleepy, small town everybody loves,” like Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga.

“I see a lot of success for this town in the future,” he said. “If we stick together and work together, there’s no stopping us.

Read about Price’s mixed drinks and Southern hospitality on page 43 of Profile 2016.

 

The Rev. David O’Connor

All you have to do in downtown Natchez is look up, and it’s plain to see the Catholic diocese is important to Natchez.

The Rev. David O’Connor, though originally from Limerick, Ireland, has been an important part of St. Mary Basilica for more than a decade.

“It’s been 30 years since I first came here,” he said, from 1986-92 and 2003-present. “I have grown to become not only a fabric of the church life, but the community as a whole. I feel very much at home in Natchez.”

The community has been very welcoming, he said, but also the church suits him.

“Thirty years ago, the church was much more autocratic,” he said. “Today, the style of the church is very participative in the decision making. That has suited my disposition and theology very well.”

O’Connor first came to Mississippi after seminary school in 1964. He ended up in the City of Meridian during the Civil Rights movement, helping people register to vote and teaching to improve literacy.

That contract established him in the state and enabled him to later end up in Natchez.

O’Connor is involved in fundraisers, with Habitat for Humanity, Copiah-Lincoln Community College and more.

He’d like to see a larger retirement community, more opportunities for Natchez’s youth to return home after college and a more vibrant downtown.

“It seems to me, when there is no pilgrimage or weekend concert, that things get very quiet in downtown Natchez,” he said. “I am aware that we attract a very large number of tourists each year, and I would like to think that we could have more activity downtown.”

Take a peek into O’Connor’s parsonage on page 12 of Profile 2016.