Employees discover decades-old connection of their dads
Community Development Manager Brad Bradford and Senior Administrative Assistant Janene King have worked together in various roles at Mississippi Power for a collective 65 years.
They recently discovered a special link between their dads, one that dates back more than 40 years.
King uncovered the connection when she came across a newspaper article from April 3, 1965.
“I was going through boxes of old things at the house where I grew up and I found a lot of treasures, one of them being this article in a box of my dad’s stuff,” King said.
The story was about how the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve unit in Gulfport defended the western portion of Ship Island “against an attack and infiltration by an enemy force.”
The “enemy force” was actually the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve unit in Mobile taking part in the training exercise.
In a picture of Marines that accompanied the article, King found one of her father – headquarters platoon commander Arlan Scarbrough. As she read the caption under the photo, another name stood out to her – 1st platoon commander L. Paul Bradford.
“I thought that had to be Brad’s daddy because it was Brad’s name exactly,” King said. “I thought it was really cool.”
She sent Bradford an email, then brought the newspaper to work for him to see.
“That was the first time I had ever seen that article and that picture,” Bradford said. “It really took me back. I remember those exercises they used to do out on the islands. I remember me and my brother – I was probably about 6 – on the beach waiting for them to come back from one of those exercises.
“It was a big thing to go down to the beach and watch the Marines as they land those amphibious units on the beach. Janene and I have known each other a long time and to find a connection like this that you didn’t know you had is pretty cool stuff.”
They have been able to determine that their dads served together in the Marine Reserves in Gulfport from 1960 through about 1970.
Scarbrough started working at Mississippi Power in 1962 as an accountant and eventually became comptroller. In 1977, he moved to Gulf Power as vice president, comptroller and chief financial officer until he retired in 2000 after 38 years with the two companies.
The elder Bradford was manager of White’s Auto Store at the time of the picture, but later owned Mercury A/C and Heating for many years with former Gulfport mayor Leroy Urie.
Scarborough died in 2012 and Bradford passed away in 2013.
“It just goes to show you it really is a small world,” King said.
Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), produces safe, reliable and environmentally responsible energy for more than 186,000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties. Mississippi Power earned the 2015 ReliabilityOneTM Award for outstanding midsize utility for excellence in storm restoration and recovery efforts as well as being a leader in reliability, customer service and safety. Visit our websites at www.mississippipower.com and www.mississippipowernews.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.