‘Atchafalaya Riches’

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Margie Scoby’s new book “Atchafalaya Riches” talks about a tragic family history dating back to the 19th century.

Scoby lost her mother, 21-year-old Margarette Williams Brown, to a domestic violence incident when the author was 8-months-old.


Margarette’s husband, John Brown, fatally shot her in 1963 at the Dumas Center in Houma.

“He always said if he could not have her, then no one could have her,” Scoby said, recollecting the stories her great-grandmother, Lillie Smith, told her.

Scoby is donating 30 percent of the proceeds for “Atchafalaya Riches” to Unforgettable Survivors.


The Houma native started Unforgettable Survivors to help children who have lost parents because of domestic violence.

The foundation provides a way for her to show children there are people who care.

“This is a way for me to give back,” the author said. “For kids, it matters. People may think it doesn’t, but it does. Nothing can replace a loss of a parent. Even if I put in 30 percent, it will never replace the loss. It just shows them that someone does care.”


Scoby was 10 when she first found out about her mother’s tragic death when someone questioned her mother’s whereabouts.

“I told the person, ‘She is at home.’ That person responded in a harsh way, ‘No, she is not. I am talking about your real mom.’

“That is when I realized that my mom was not my mom,” Scoby said. “My great-grandmother told me the real story as to what happened.”


For the past 50 years, Scoby said her mother’s story has “never died.”

“Everywhere I go, I get the same story, ‘Oh I remember that tragedy.’ A lady sent me a message on Facebook the other day and said she remembers that day,” the author said. “That is something that happens all the time. The incident never died.”

“Atchafalaya Riches” discusses the tragic death of Scoby’s mother as well as her family’s history since leaving Africa and settling in Terrebonne Parish dating back to the early 1800s.


The book’s title is reflective of the family’s roots in St. Mary Parish along the Atchafalaya Basin.

Scoby said her grandmother’s many stories about her family were the basis of the book. “I have been doing research on my family for the 15 years,” she said.

Among the stories was information about her grandfather, George Smith, who was a cattleman. He had a branding iron that was registered from 1868, which serves now as a marketing brand for “Atchafalaya Riches.”


“My grandfather’s branding iron is GS, meaning George Smith. I turned that into “Get Survivors,” because it keeps popping up in the book,” Scoby explained. “At the end of my book, the branding iron is speaking.”

“Atchafalaya Riches” is published by AuthorHouse and is available on Amazon. It will soon be available at Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million.

A prolific writer, Scoby aspires to publish one of the 37 children’s books in her trove.


“They are in the process,” she said. “I have eight or nine illustrated already.”

“Mousey Mouse,” Scoby’s favorite, is among the books. It features a new mouse in town that goes into the field, where he encounters frightening sights and sounds. He soon discovers he’s not the only one in the field looking for food.

The book uses the same underlying message as the Unforgettable Survivors Foundation.


“The moral of the story is that when you are afraid of something just know you aren’t alone,” she said.

Margie Scoby, author of “Atchafalaya Riches,” began the Unforgettable Survivors Foundation to fight for children who have lost parents as a result of domestic violence because of a past filled with tragedy.