Biography:

Historian, teacher, librarian; novelist. Born– July 16, 1937, in Pascagoula, Miss. Parents– Prieur Jay and Vivian (Perez) Higginbotham. Married Alice Louisa Martin, June 27, 1970.  Children–three. Education– University of Mississippi, B.A., 1960; further study at Hunter College of the City University of New York and American University. Served as assistant clerk, Mississippi State House of Representatives, 1955-1961; taught in Mobile Public Schools, 1962-1973; head Local History Department, Mobile Public Library, 1973-1983; founder and director, Mobile Municipal Archives, 1983-2001. Member Authors League of America and Franklin Society. Founder and member Mobile Association of Sages and Savants; Society Mobile-L’Habana; Founders of Old Mobile Society; and Mobile Tricentennial Committee.  Awarded the General L. Kemper Williams Prize, Louisiana Historical Society; Alabama Library Association’s Nonfiction Award, 1979; Gilbert Chinard Prize from the Institute Francais de Washington and the Society for French Historical Studies, 1978; Received the Mobile Scroll of Merit Award and the Elizabeth Gould Award in 1981 and the Alabama Humanitarian Award in 1999.  Awarded the status of director emeritus by the Mobile Municpal Archives in 2001. Died June 20, 2017.

Source:

Contemporary Authors online; obituary, Mobile Register, June 25, 2017.

Publication(s):

Autumn in Petrishchevo. Moscow; Progress Publishers, 1987.

Brother Holyfield; a Novel. New York; Thomas-Hull, 1972.

Discovering Russia.  Progress, 1989.

Family Biographies; Brief Portraits of Some Ancestors and Members of the Higginbotham Family of Pascagoula. Mobile, Ala.; Colonial Books, 1967.

Fast Train Russia. New York; Dodd, Mead, 1983.

Man, Nature, and the Infinite; Random Thoughts and Impressions…. Lighthouse Books, 1998.

Fort Maurepas; the Birth of Louisiana. Mobile, Ala.; Colonial Books, 1968.

Mauvila. Mobile, Ala.; G. B. Acton, 1990.

Mobile, City by the Bay. Mobile, Ala.; Azalea City Printers, 1968.

The Mobile Indians. 2nd edition. Mobile, Ala.; Sir Rey’s, 1966.

Old Mobile; Fort Louis de la Louisiane, 1702-1711. Mobile, Ala.; Museum of the City of Mobile, 1977.

Pascagoula Indians. Mobile, Ala.; Colonial Books, 1967.

Pascagoula; Singing River City. Mobile, Ala.; Gill Press, 1967.

Selected Writings.  New York; Xlibris Press, 2008.

The Vital Alliance; Speeches and Statements on Soviet-American Relations, 1979-1988. 1988.

Translator_and_Editor

The Journal of Sauvole; Historical Journal of the Establishment of the French in Louisiana. Mobile, Ala.; Colonial Books, 1969.

Joint_Editor_and_Translator:

The Voyage to Dauphin Island in 1720; the Journal of Bertet de la Clue. Mobile, Ala.; Museum of the City of Mobile, 1974.

Papers;

A collection of the papers of Jay Higginbotham is held by the J. L. Bedsole Library at the University of Mobile.