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Actress views Bay St. Louis as ?last outpost) of civilization?
By EDGAR H. PEREZ
HANCOCK COUNTY BUREAU
?	BAY ST. LOUIS ? There?s a new face in the permanent cast of characters who grace the daily scene in Bay St. Louis.
Author-actress Lyla Hay Owen has moved her permanent residence from New Orleans to this county seat on the western edge of the Mississippi Sound.
Owen came to the Coast last summer, but she was no stranger to the area. Her brother had graduated from St. Stanislaus High School in the 1960s, and she has spent vacation time here since ^ she was a child.
More recently she has visited her friend Jerry Dixon, a Bay St. Louis bookseller. Who could be a better friend to an author than a bookseller?
She describes Bay St. Louis as a ?sanctuary,? as ?a last outpost.? Owen	?People	and	the way of life here
are still very civilized ? our cities have become uncivilized,? she said.
?You can actually know your neighbors in Bay St. Louis, ? she said. ?It?s like a time warp in a very positive way. ?
Owen has taken a house in the 200 block of Ballentine Street with her husband, Larry Landers, executive chef at Great Southern Club in the Hancock Bank Building in Gulfport.
She said she has enough credits on stage and screen from years of work in New York and New Orleans that she can live anywhere she wants to. ?My agent will call me if there is a part I should consider,? she said.
Follow your dream
One of her first ?appearances? in Bay St. Louis was at a recent Career Day Fair at Bay Senior High School where one of her most repeated pieces of advice to aspiring i authors and actors was this: ?Follow your dream.? 1
Owen has been following her own dream since the early J 1960s in New York where her goal had been to write for [ Time magazine. Her most recent writing achievement t was the 1987 publication of ?Creoles of New Orleans,? in . collaboration with photographer Owen Murphy. The work~| is a study of ?the people of color? from the city?s Seventh Ward and was funded through a CETA Artists in The City of New Orleans Project.
She currently is involved in turning the research from that project into a novel.
?It will be a historically accurate novel with the beginning set in the Caribbean,? she said.
The 1987 book is available in Bay St. Louis at Dixon?s ( store on Main Street and at Bookends on U.S. 90.
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Acting award
Owen?s dream follows her from New Orleans next month when she will receive a best-actress award from that city?s tabloid newspaper, Gambit, to be presented at special ceremonies in the Fairmont Hotel?s Blue Room on April 24.
She earned the honor with her performance as Sera-phina in ?The Rose Tattoo? during last year?s Tennessee j Williams Literary Festival in La Petite Theater.
?I?m flattered they keep asking me to do things in New i Orleans, but I?d rather spend more time working here l where I live now, ? she said.	.	^3
She got involved in the Bay High Career Day after being j asked to participate by Bahiyyih Schwabacher, one of her/-j students in acting classes she teaches at Serenity^ Bookstore.
?I love children. I?ve been teaching poetry in the Long' Beach schools, and I would love to have an acting work?wf shop for children in Bay St. Louis,? Owen said. ?".ij
She also has joined the new board of directors of the'J Bay St. Louis Little Theater.	^3
Equity card holder	^
Owen got her actor?s equity card while working with \ June Havoc in the New Orleans Repertory Theater. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theater in Los Angeles and ? has performed in more than 25 stage, film and television j productions.
Since the 1970s, she has written more than 30 dramas, ! comedies, musicals and children?s tales which have been j produced professionally and by university diama departments throughout the country.	(.??j
She currently writes a regular historical column for a< New Orleans tabloid The Rooster.	*	j