The son of Willis and Dora Fayard Powell, Joseph was born in the St. Martin community of North Biloxi in 1935. With his father working the shrimp and oyster boats, his mother working in the factories, and his grandfather, Rudolph Fayard being a fisherman and boat builder, “Sonny” was destined to become a seafood worker and boat captain.
Sonny’s career began in the summer of 1952 with his first job at Southern Shellfish Company on Biloxi’s Back Bay. His task was to dump the baskets of shrimp on the tables to be picked by the workers. From that duty he moved to the warehouse and labeling room where the canned shrimp were sterilized, labeled and boxed for shipment.
The following summer Sonny was able to serve as deckhand on the “Buddy Gillis” owned by the Tartavull [also spelled Taltavull] Shrimp Company and captained by John Hungerford. He later worked as deckhand on “Snow Drift”, “Daniel W.”, “Anton Sekul” and as captain of the “Olivia Sekul”, owned by Southern Shell Fish Company, Danny Winerski, and Sea Coast Packing Company respectively.
In May of 1959, he moved to family to Violet, Louisiana and began his career as canning and warehouse supervisor for Violet Packing Company, where he was later promoted to plant manager. Sonny later served as plant manager for Samanie Packing Company in Dulac, Louisiana until the plant was forced to close due to the influx of cheaper shrimp from India and Asia. He and his family returned to Mississippi as he worked for Gulf City Fisheries as purchasing agent for their Pascagoula and Bayou le Batre locations.
In December of 1990, Sonny was offered a job in New Orleans as the manager of plant operations for Reuthers Seafood which was later purchased by Bumble Bee Foods. Here he would remain in the canning/freezing operations until he retired at the age of 75.
In 2022, Joseph Sonny Powell was selected as Shrimp King and now enjoys his retirement in Biloxi trout fishing along the Biloxi Gulf Coast. His contributions to the maritime and seafood industries are well deserving of this recognition.
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