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DJURO RADULOVICH
Hello, my name is Djuro Radulovich, but you can call me Dave, OK? I am a Yugoslavian as you can see from my marble headstone. I was bom at Novi?that means town to you?Kotor Bay on the Adriatic Sea. It?s a bay midway of the country, smaller than Bay st. Louis but a sailor and fishing town such as yours. Heaven knows what the name of my country is today or will be tomorrow: Bosnia Herzegovina, maybe Servia or Croatia.
Yugoslavia, or the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, was formed after World War I?1919?from the countries of Austria, Hungary, and Greece. So we have always been three separate ethnic groups, fighting among ourselves and fighting to keep from being gobbled up by our big neighbors. If you read the headlines of the newspapers, my country when I lived there was much like it is today: war. So, it?s no wonder that I left.
We had our religious differences, too, just like today: the northern part is Roman Catholic, the southern part (near Greece) is Greek Orthodox Catholic and Bosnia, my home, is mostly Muslim. The Turks conquered our section long ago, and the people there feel that the Turks are strong enough to keep them from being taken by other sections or countries, so they converted. I, myself, was a Roman Catholic, and my headstone is ?High Church? Slovak language (not Greek as you may have imagined).
Many Yugoslavians came to the Gulf Coast?particularly Biloxi and New Orleans?before 1900 as ship builders, fishermen, or seafood plant workers. The Biloxi Seafood Museum has the champion Biloxi Schooner Mary Margaret which was built by the Covaceviches.
The Slavic people are kept together by the Slovic Benevolent Association, founded in 1913. They still have a celebration for their people and customs a few days before Christmas each year. Many return to the old country from which their grandparents and great-grandparents came.
I was bom May 22,1810 and died May 20, 1850?two days short of my 40th birthday.
Thank you and good evening.
SOURCE: Encyclopaedia Britannica and Ethnic Heritage in Mississippi