Published 11:37 am Saturday, June 8, 2024 By Sabrina Simms Robertson NATCHEZ — A hero to many throughout the Miss-Lou and beyond, G. Mark LaFrancis died at 11 p.m.
Friday after a long battle with cancer. LaFrancis has been a writer, photographer and film maker for more than 30 years He won many local, state and national writing awards and was selected as the 2018 Mississippi Scholar by the Mississippi Humanities Council for his extensive work as an oral historian and filmmaker. Along with Darryl White and Robert Morgan, LaFrancis produced the award-winning documentary “The Parchman Ordeal: The Untold Story,” about the wrongful punishment of more than 150 young Civil Rights advocates in 1965, and published the accompanying book “The Parchman Ordeal: 1965 Natchez Civil Rights Injustice.
” He is also well-known throughout the Miss-Lou as a champion of veteran’s affairs as the founder of his non-profit Home With Heroes Foundation, which since 2013 has supported countless veterans and their families. He is a retired veteran having served 23 years in the Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, earning two Air Force Commendation Medals. He spent many years interviewing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and composing poems from their stories and offering comfort to surviving family members in his book series, “In Their Boots.
” Stories that many veterans never talk about were shared with LaFrancis and he recorded these recollections in oral documentaries. Hi.