NATCHEZ — For Stephanie Gauthier selling fireworks is not about the quick flashes of color and loud crackle in the air.

The business is about something more lasting — a way to keep family memories alive.

Gauthier is a third-generation fireworks stand owner to set up shop in Natchez. Her grandfather, Skinner Murray, ran three stands in the early 1950s. Even though he went only as far as the third grade in school, Gauthier said her grandfather knew how to work with people and was a natural businessman.

“He was real good to his customers,” she said. “Some of them bring their great-grandchildren by to our stand now because they knew my granddaddy.”

Gauthier now runs a stand with her husband, Nathan, and occasionally her 7-year-old granddaughter Kali Martinez.

When she was younger,  Gauthier paid for school clothes or extra items by working at the fireworks stand.

“My brother and I both had our own cash register. It was absolutely a family business, we all worked together.”

Gauthier’s sons Casey Floyd and Gary Gray both worked with her when they were growing up as well.

Nathan said Floyd now owns his own business. Working at the stand laid down the roots, he said.

“That man will buy and sell anything,” Stephanie Gauthier said, “He knows how to make a dollar.”

While working at the stand did teach her and her family valuable skills, the most rewarding part has always been making others happy, Stephanie said.

That’s the part of her grandfather’s legacy she hopes to continue with her customers now.

“I’ll cut people deals, I’ll throw something in the bag for little kids or something,” she said. “It’s not just about making money. What we give away makes me happy too, it’s seeing how they smile when they leave here.”