Hard work doesn’t scare Miss. honoree
Natalie Perkins takes each day with a grain of salt and a whole lot of nutritional tea to help her keep up with her heavy workload. Starting early in the morning, the 49-year-old’s phone starts ringing, and text messages ping nonstop until late in the evening.
She is editor and publisher of the local newspaper, the Deer Creek Pilot. Among her many side jobs, she has a marketing contract with a local bank and does graphic design for a few clients. She also teaches journalism and yearbook a few days a week at the school attended by the youngest of her three daughters.
All that is in addition to her job as deputy director of the Sharkey County Emergency Management Agency, where she works at a makeshift desk in a temporary office in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, a town that was decimated by an EF-4 tornado in March 2023.
At least 21 people died in tornadoes across north Mississippi that weekend, including 15 in Rolling Fork. Perkins said a couple more died later from injuries sustained in the tornado. Another 165 people were injured.
It was her integrity and knowledge of local resources that made her a hero in the aftermath of the tornado. The emergency management job became her priority, but she manages each week to get the newspaper printed with help from a lone employee and a contract worker.
“People need to know what’s going on,” Perkins said. “There’s not another local newspaper around.”
Getting word out to residents on where to find resources became a priority after the tornado.
Perkins worked nonstop with emergency management in the days and weeks after the storm. She often putting in more than 12 hours a day before switching gears to work on the newspaper, often getting little to no sleep.
Nearly a year after the tornado, recovery is still ongoing. But signs of progress are all around.
Perkins still works long hours and feels like she will never get caught up on all the things she needs to do, but she doesn’t know the word “quit.”
“This whole process has been a learning experience,” Perkins said.
Perkins is the USA TODAY Woman of the Year for Mississippi.
People who paved the way
Perkins attributes her keen journalistic sense to former Deer Creek Pilot owner, editor and mentor Ray Mosby, who left her the newspaper when he died in November 2021. She finalized ownership in January.
“I have a degree in journalism from the School of Ray Mosby,” she said. “He was one of the best journalists I’ve ever encountered. He knew so much about everything.”
Proudest moment, and the lowest
In her nearly 30-year career with the Pilot, it’s the stories she has been able to tell that make her most proud, Perkins said. These days, however, she’s also proud of how she has been able to help her community get back on its feet, even though the entire town was virtually blown away by the tornado. But her proudest moment has also brought her to her lowest. “It’s hard for me because, since the tornado, I feel like I’ve lost a little of my newspaper passion because I have been so focused on this response, this recovery from the tornado.”
Advice to her younger self
“You know, that’s such a trap,” Perkins said. “I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t been through everything that I’ve been through. I would tell myself to just be true to myself. I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be who I am. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t been through all of the crap I have been through since I was 18 years old. I wouldn’t have the strength I have today if I hadn’t been through that.”