Owned and operated by John J. and Grace Renes Seymour, Grace Seymour Stuffed Crabs was the epitome of “grass roots” seafood processing.
Born in 1898 and 1900 respectively, John J. and Grace were married at the young ages of 16 and 15 years. In the early years, John J. would rise early to catch crabs from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. by running a “trot line”. This method, which consisted of a heavy fishing line with baited fishhooks attached at intervals, was not as easy as the currently used “crab pots”. Often, John J’s hands would crack and bleed from the salt water and strings. He would also tong for oysters when not crabbing.
All that was harvested would be brought to the family home where Grace would boil the crabs for picking and the oysters would be shucked by a team of workers. The meats were carefully weighed, and each worker paid for what they produced. The oysters would be sold by the gallon cans and the crabmeat would be used in the delicious stuffed crabs that Grace was famous for. Thus, the processing company later to be known as Grace Seymour Stuffed Crabs had begun.
The Ocean Springs, Mississippi couple bore nine children, eight of whom survived into adulthood. Their sons would set out each day for the train depot where they would sell the crabs as the trains arrived throughout the day. As was often the case in this era, several of the children had to drop out of school to help with the family business to make ends meet. But not solely relying on these sales and those from the shop behind their home, where Grace also sold her very popular gumbo, they would provide the goods to local restaurants and ship them by rail to Alaska once a week.
As long as the hours were, the Seymours still found time to contribute to others. If a child needed a dress for their First Holy Communion, Grace would immediately get on her Singer sewing machine and create a beautiful dress and veil for the ceremony. John J would always have bycatch in his daily harvesting that he would bring home for Grace to clean and preserve; but no sooner would she complete the task when someone in greater need would come by and she would generously offer the fish to feed their family that night. This is how John J and Grace would live their lives until they passed away in the early 1960s - leading by their example of hard work, caring and selflessly sharing.
For their years of contributions to the seafood industry and the Gulf Coast, we honor John J and Grace Seymour by recognizing Grace Seymour Stuffed Crabs in the Heritage Hall of Fame.
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