Miriam Price Interview

When Miriam Price and Helen Solar’s granddaughter Nicole Price was diagnosed with cancer in the 1980s, Miriam was concerned but didn’t think there was anything she could do about the situation. However, when doctors at Ochsners in New Orleans asked the family if the children in the area played on a landfill, and informed them there were five children in St. Mary Parish with the same cancer—neuroblastoma, Miriam turned her concern into action. When she returned home from Ochsners and learned that Marine Shale located in Morgan City, was incinerating hazardous waste (creosote) without a permit, she decided she had to do something. She spent many years attending local and state public hearings and testifying against the company. Although Nicole lost her fight to cancer in 1997, she lived long enough to see the facility closed. Today, Miriam and her husband Merlin are enjoying traveling and spending time with their other grandchildren and great grandchildren. Audio interview with Miriam Price for Women Pioneers of the Louisiana Environmental Movement by Peggy Frankland, conducted by Jennifer A. Cramer, Director of the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History. Copyright: Louisiana State University Special Collections.