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Lighthouse lovers<br>Couple shares tower's story with Biloxi visitors

  • Published
  • By Susan Griggs
  • 81st Training Wing Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The Biloxi Lighthouse, which has led countless mariners safely to shore, has guided a Keesler couple back to the place where their relationship began.

Staff Sgts. Brian and Amanda Margavich were airmen first class when they met in the permanent party dormitories in February 2000. Brian was a help desk technician and Amanda worked in career enhancements.

Amanda soon learned that the man she loved was already in love ... with lighthouses.

"I didn't realize it was an obsession right away -- that realization came a few years later," Amanda recalled. "I just thought it was a hobby until we started planning trips around lighthouses. Whenever we visit my parents in southern Florida, we stop at all the lighthouses on the way down."

They spent much of their courtship as volunteer tour guides at the lighthouse on weekends and exchanged marriage vows in the lighthouse's lantern room on a hot, humid day in June 2001.

They continued to volunteer at the lighthouse until 2002, when the decision was made to close the lighthouse to the public due to safety concerns with visitors climbing the spiral steps to the top.

From 2003 until earlier this year, Brian and Amanda were stationed at Pope Air Force Base, N.C. Although it was an inland base, the couple volunteered at the Oak Island Lighthouse near Wilmington, N.C., and Brian still serves as its webmaster.

While stationed in North Carolina, the couple learned of the devastation Hurricane Katrina hurled at the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

"We were relieved to learn that the lighthouse had survived, but were upset to hear that there was heavy damage inside the tower," Brian said. "When I found out that I had orders back to Keesler, I began e-mailing Bill Raymond, museums manager for the City of Biloxi, who informed me of the $400,000 renovation taking place. He said he'd love to have us as volunteer guides again due to our past experience and the fact that Hurricane Katrina wiped out all of his paid staff."

Since returning to Keesler, Brian teaches network administrator courses in the 333rd Training Squadron and Amanda is the assistant noncommissioned officer in charge of installation personnel readiness for the 81st Force Support Squadron.

Brian, who has visited 60 lighthouses so far, likes the different uses for lighthouses, as well as their lenses, lights and unique tower architecture, while Amanda is fascinated by the history surrounding each structure.

Giving tours once or twice a week is just part of their volunteer work.
"I consider myself a modern-day lighthouse keeper for the Biloxi Lighthouse," Brian explained. "Every week I wipe down the windows and the glass prisms on the 84-year-old fifth order Fresnel lens.

'We're also cleaning off 80 years of tarnish from automation," the Georgia native continued. "Once the lighthouse was converted to electricity and daily climbs by a keeper were no longer needed, the once bright and shiny brass became dark and green with tarnish. It's our goal to remove that tarnish and then polish the brass frame regularly to keep it looking brand new."

And this time around, there's a third lighthouse keeper -- Brian and Amanda's 3-year-old daughter, Haley.

"Haley loves lighthouses almost as much as I do," Brian said. "It's nearly a nightly tradition of ours to climb the lighthouse and watch the sunset from the balcony of the tower. Haley even says goodbye to the lighthouse as we drive away."

The couple misses many of the familiar landmarks wiped off the map by Katrina's winds and storm surge.

"It's sad to see that the lighthouse at the old President Casino site is dark at night," Brian observed. "But we have a unique setting here -- miles and miles of unobstructed beach view! We don't have rows of condos or beach houses on stilts preventing us from seeing God's creation as we travel from Biloxi to Gulfport, and that's so neat!"

Brian hopes that after he completes his four-year instructor assignment, he'll be able to remain here as a military training leader.

"The people here, both on base and in the community, are some of the friendliest you'll ever meet," he emphasized. "We are ecstatic to be back and have been diving in with both feet, getting roots planted and contacts made."

"Keesler is a very special place for me," Amanda remarked. "It's where I met, fell in love and married my best friend."

Brian and Amanda have special plans for their 10th anniversary next year.

"We plan to renew our vows in a traditional Catholic Church setting with a reception," Brian said. "The lighthouse made for a unique ceremony that will never be forgotten, but it did keep the guest list very short ... our parents and our attendants. We've had a great nine years so far and would love to share the ceremony with more of our family."
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