Sidney McLaurin ‘Laurin’ Fields Stamm

Published 11:58 pm Saturday, June 18, 2016

Sidney McLaurin “Laurin” Fields Stamm died Thursday, June 16, at home after a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease.

A memorial service will be held Tuesday, June 21, at 11 a.m. at St. Paul Catholic Church. Following the service will be a celebration of the life of Laurin Stamm at the BB Club, 721 Clay St.

A Vicksburg native, Stamm was married to John Carter “Jack” Stamm for 58 years. She was the daughter of Vaughn and Lucy McLaurin Fields, who preceded her in death, along with her brother, Vaughn, and her grandson Alan Ebersole.

Stamm was the valedictorian of the Carr Central High School class of 1951. She attended Mississippi University for Women and graduated from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

At the W and Ole Miss she was an active member of the Lockheart Social Club and Tri Delta Sorority, respectively.

After graduation, she began her journalism career, which spanned more than 60 years. For 58 years she served as the Food Editor for the Vicksburg Evening Post through three generations of the Cashman family.

Her weekly column, “From the Kitchen of the Cypress House,” was the catalyst for her cookbook of the same name, published in 2011 after her retirement from the newspaper. She also had many freelance articles published in Southern Living, Southern Style and W Magazine.

Stamm was a volunteer at St. Francis Xavier Academy and St. Aloysius High School, where her five children attended.

She was one of the founders of Play-A-Day-In-May-Away, the Catholic school carnival. She was a life member of the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary, and served as president.

She also spent many hours helping with the club’s first cookbook, “Vintage Vicksburg.”

Stamm served on the Vicksburg Parks and Recreation Board when the decision to build the new Vicksburg City Pool was made. She spent more than 25 years involved with the Vicksburg Swim Association. She served as president, coach, stroke judge, and state records’ keeper.

The Stamm Family Invitational Swim Meet was established to honor Stamm and her family for their dedication to the sport.

She and her family were the 1995 recipient of the Conoco Phillips Outstanding Service Award for invaluable service to swimming.

Stamm is survived by her husband, her five children and their spouses: Carter and Linda Stamm of River Ridge, La.; Story and Bruce Ebersole of Vicksburg; Lauri and Riley Collins of Ridgeland; Craig and Shannon Stamm and Maggie and Greg Langston of Dallas; grandchildren, Ashken and Anoush Stamm, Bern and his wife, Mattie Ebersole; Jase Ebersole, Riley, MariMac and Jack Collins, Sidney and Aden Stamm, Lauchlin, Story, Carson and Vaughn Langston; cousin, George Alexander Stevens; sisters-in-law Janie Selby Fields, Pat Stamm, Dorothy Neill and their families.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to the Mississippi  Chapter of American Parkinson Disease Association (1040 River Oaks Drive, Flowood, MS 39232), The Bruce Alan Ebersole Memorial Scholarship at St. Aloysius High School (1900 Grove St, Vicksburg, MS 39183) or The Bruce Alan Ebersole Memorial Scholarship at Princeton University (3 Buckhammon Place, St. Louis, MO 63124) (http://www.baescholarship.com/index.php).

Special thanks to her caregivers Alma Parsons and Dorothy Stewart.