Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Don M. Larson “Camille: One Family’s Story” (Z/2382). 
Creator/Collector: Don M. Larson. 
Date(s): 2020; 2023.
Size: 0.10 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff Laura Heller, 2023.
Provenance: Gift of Don M. Larson, of Kent, Washington, on September 8, 2020; September 10, 2023; Z/U/2020.028.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Don M. Larson “Camille: One Family’s Story” (Z/2382), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography/History:

Don M. Larson

Don. M. Larson, a native of Vicksburg, Warren County, Mississippi, authored this account of his and his family’s experience of Hurricane Camille in 1969 while living in Vicksburg and Gulfport.  The account is contrasted with the story of Woodstock, also happening the same days as the coastal community braced for the hurricane.

 

Scope and Content Note:

The collection consists of a twenty-one-page Microsoft Word document titled "Camille: One Family's Story," written by Don M. Larson in 2020 and updated in 2023. Mr. Larson described his manuscript narrative of Hurricane Camille as "just the story of an ordinary extended family, suddenly and unexpectedly caught up in extraordinary circumstances. It is a personal memoir, told largely from the point of view of the author, who was then, at age 16, the youngest member of that family. So, It's not 'based on a true story'; it is a factual account, to the best of my recollection, from a survivor—me." It is made accessible here as a PDF file generated by Mr. Larson from his original Word document.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Manuscript.  2020; 2023.

One manuscript titled "Camille: One Family's Story" written by Don M. Larson in 2020 and updated in 2023. Manuscript consists of a total of 21 pages, including cover page, introduction, prologue, and an account of one Mississippi family's experience of Hurricane Camille, and the tragic effects of a devastating hurricane on this family. 

Box 1, Folder 1