Interviewer: Preetam Prakash

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I had stopped at Mr. Luke’s ice and fuel plant before to speak with him, his son, and wife about how their business had been since the oil spill. Mr. Luke’s son ran a business unloading shrimp out of the same location as the ice and fuel plant. I had spoken with Mr. Luke a few times after this initial meeting about getting together to do an oral history interview. I decided to stop by the plant today to see if I might catch him there. Mr. Luke turned out to be in the office and agreed to do the interview that day.

Mr. Luke was born in Dulac, LA in 1940. His father had worked as farmer and trapper and had eventually become involved in the seafood processing business and had moved the family down to Dulac from Franklin, LA at this point. Mr. Luke had briefly attended college, before joining the Marines in the late 1950s. He worked for the oil industry, both on a rig as well as in a warehouse, for a few years before going to work in the seafood processing business in the mid-1960s. He had operated his father’s processing plant until 1981, when he handed this plant over to his brother and started his own. In 1994, Mr. Luke had opened the ice and fuel plant in Biloxi where we met for the interview. He had been motivated to do so in part by the fact that it was often difficult for Louisiana fishermen and shrimpers to get fuel and ice at locally owned plants. In 2000, Mr. Luke had sold his processing plant in Dulac and had since then operated just the plant in Biloxi. His business had suffered considerable damage during Hurricane Katrina and had been powerfully impacted by the oil spill as well.