Families & livelihoods
Fayard
A family story rooted in shrimping, seafood, and the shoreline at Front Beach.
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400 Front Beach Drive
A working waterfront
In 1948, Earl Fayard Sr. acquired the Front Beach property from his mother. With deep-water access for boats, it had long supported seafood ventures and had once been a thriving center of oyster production.
Earl and his father, Luther—both shrimpers—used the site as a home base for their boats and to peddle shrimp. A small factory followed, and later a local seafood market.
Earl Fayard Jr. took over as a teenager and expanded the business beyond the waterfront: first through a local delivery route, then by shipping shrimp across the country. The beachfront factory was destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969 and rebuilt; Hurricane Katrina destroyed it again. After Katrina, the operation moved across the bay to Biloxi for greater shelter from future storms.
A family recipe
Ruby’s crabmeat potatoes
A recipe page credits Ruby Fayard and notes that she and Earl Houston Fayard Sr. ran and owned Ocean Springs Seafood Co. and Market until Hurricane Katrina.
Ruby made and sold the potatoes for years by the dozens.
Continuing the work
Gulf shrimp, still on the coast
The Front Beach property was sold to the City of Ocean Springs in 2022 for a future multi-use community gathering center. Earl Jr. and his daughter Bethany Fayard continue to process USA Gulf shrimp in Biloxi, supplying restaurants from Orange Beach, Alabama, to Gonzales, Louisiana, as well as customers around the country.
Ocean Springs Seafood Co.