OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) — Coast residents have the opportunity this week to walk through history as part of the 2026 Ocean Springs Cemetery Tour.
Each year, a local cemetery is fitted with actors who tell the real-life stories of those buried in Ocean Springs. The event is put on in part by the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Arts Center.
Louann Sekul said the actors do a great job portraying their characters.
“They do a great job of acting and really play the part of whatever character they are trying to portray, and it’s so interesting,” Sekul said. “You find out things you never knew before even though you lived here all your whole life.”
This year’s tour takes place in Evergreen Cemetery and focuses on those who built the pecan, citrus and oyster industries.
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Among the figures portrayed is Hiram Fisher Russell, a local alderman, merchant and real estate agent who helped pioneer thin-shell, paper-shell pecans and named one of them after himself.
Local actor Alex Shannon has taken part in the cemetery tour in years past. The chance to research history is what brought him back.
“I love delving in. I’m a research guy,” Shannon said. “That’s one of the things I do with my job, and one of the things I’ve done as a hobby for a very long time. I dive right in to research topics and find out things that people probably wouldn’t know if they didn’t spend as much time looking into it as I do.”
Organizers said collaboration with a local production company gave this year’s tour the most actors of any previous year.
Tours will be given from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Buses leave from the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Arts Center.
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