Lois Joseph Fountain, Jr. was born on January 1, 1930, on the Back Bay of Biloxi. He was the eldest of thirteen children born to Lois and Elzena Lindsey Fountain. As a young boy, L.J. knew the hardship of growing up in a large family with little resources and left school in the eighth grade to help the family make ends meet. He would work the waters of Back Bay, catching crabs for his mother to make stuffed crabs, then would use his bicycle to sell the crabs throughout area including Keesler Air Force Base. L.J. would work at various factories shucking oysters and, during the summer months, he would work the shrimp boats mostly out of Biloxi Harbor.
At the age of 19, L.J. joined the US Marine Corps. After serving two years, he returned home and married Audrey Garcia and the two started a family. L.J. then went to work with his father-in-law, Earl Garcia, at Garcia’s Gas Station in Waveland, Mississippi. Right after the birth of his and Audrey’s second son, L.J. was drafted into the US Army and served two years in the Korean Conflict. It was during this time their third son was born and the family returned to Bay St. Louis and purchased an unfinished Jim Walter Home, a company for whom L.J. would begin selling homes in addition to joining the Mississippi National Guard to supplement the family income. Over the several years L.J. worked for the company, his hard work paid off as he sold over $1 million in homes in one year – an accomplishment rewarded by the donation of building materials to complete his own home. While completing the building of their home, L.J. was called up by the National Guard to serve once again during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Fountain family would grow to include six sons, with only five surviving past infancy.
Even with all his success in home selling and his military service, L.J.’s greatest dream was to own and work a large shrimp boat, returning to the seafood industry he had grown to love as a young man. He owned several small skiffs that he and his sons would use to catch
shrimp and sell to the factories for additional income. This eventually led to L.J. working with the Mississippi Marine Conservation, serving as the Conservation Supervisor from Biloxi to the MS/LA state line. Able to be back on the water, he thoroughly enjoyed this work which included ensuring fishermen followed the laws, protecting the egg crabs from being harvested and protecting oysters from contamination by moving them to safer reefs when necessary. This final task required long, hard hours loading 5,000 barrels of oysters onto boats to be unloaded in cleaner locations within a month’s time.
Going above and beyond was second nature to L.J. who would take oyster shells from the factories and add them to reefs to help with repopulation. Wanting to help fishermen follow the laws, he and his sons would cut tall pine trees and place them in the water to be used as boundary markers for the shrimpers. L.J. always said the worst part of his job was to ticket those who broke the law and confiscate their catch, so he did what he could to ensure they didn’t do so by accident.
Finally saving enough money, L.J. purchased the “Paradise”, a shrimp boat in need of many repairs. This would be a project of dedication for he and his sons, but it paid off when they were able to begin harvesting shrimp and oysters for themselves. So successful was he that L.J. was able to pay off his boat loan with one night’s work. He decided to retire from his conservation position and make his living working his boat. Many years were spent harvesting and selling to docks in the Bayou Caddy area and participating in family events such as the annual Blessing of the Fleet, where he would decorate the “Paradise” for the festivities.
One fateful trip, L.J.’s dreams were crushed within minutes when the “Paradise” ran aground and sank in the St. Joe’s Channel. This was devastating to the whole family, so L.J. was set on finding a new boat and eventually found the “John Mavar” which he purchased and immediately set about repairing. After working the “John Mavar” for several years, L.J. became very ill and had to be hospitalized, so he parked the boat. It was during his time in recovery that the bilge pump failed, and the “John Mavar” sank. Without his knowledge, the property owners had the boat removed and scrapped thus ending L.J.’s dreams of ever owning another boat.
Loving the water and all it had to offer, Lois J. Fountain spent most of his life committed to working on it. Even when he no longer had a boat, he would use his mullet net to catch enough “Biloxi Bacon” to feed his family and friends. He was also known for his famous seafood gumbo and would often host gatherings at his home where a large pot could always be found.
Lois Joseph Fountain, Jr. passed away in 2005 in a tragic accident where his “Katrina flooded” vehicle malfunctioned while he was repairing it. His final resting place next to his beloved Audrey is marked by a headstone with a carved picture of the “Paradise” and the epitaph “Gone Shrimping”.
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