Demonstration School

Photographs, a football jacket, a newspaper clipping, and postcards given by the late Mrs. Mary E. Odum in memory of her beloved son, Charles Douglas “Doug” Odum. Doug Odum was a student at Demonstration High School on the USM Hattiesburg campus in the late 1940s and played for the DHS football team, the Demons. After high school, he enlisted in the U. S. Army and served in Germany until he became gravely ill with bone cancer. He was returned to the U. S. for treatment, but died shortly thereafter at the age of 21 (circa 1953). Items included in Mrs. Odum’s donation are:

1. Doug Odum’s black and gold Demonstration High School varsity football jacket

2. Two black and white photographs of Doug Odum (circa 1948)

3. 19 photographs depicting parades in downtown Hattiesburg, several of which are dated 1959. Others are undated, but circa 1950s.

4. A newspaper clipping about the Demonstration High School football team in which Doug Odum is mentioned as left tackle.

5. Two color postcards portraying Bennett Auditorium and Reed Green Coliseum on the USM Hattiesburg campus (circa 1960s)