Page 86 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2026

Gone Gone Coastal Coastal Gone Coastal
Susie and Mark Ketterer
They Came for the Warmth, They Stayed for the Coast
story by Cherie Ward photos courtesy of the Ketterers, the Feirns and the Wiebners
Some people come to the Gulf Coast
for a week. Then the week turns into a
month. The month turns into a season.
And somewhere between the first sunset,
the first Mardi Gras, and the first new
friend, they stop planning the trip home.
For Susie and Mark Ketterer, Kathy and
Rich Feirn, and Ning and John Wiebner,
retirement on the Coast didn’t start with a
carefully planned strategy.
It all began with a visit.
In 2016, the Ketterers first visited Bay
St. Louis from Peoria, Illinois, to see
friends. They stayed for a week.
Soon, their yearly escapes from Illinois
snow grew from a couple of weeks to
three weeks, then a month. In 2021,
they bought a charming cottage just
half a block from the bay, renovated it,
and eventually made Bay St. Louis their
home.
“We’d never even stepped foot in
Mississippi before,” Susie said.
Now they’ve fully embraced the Coast.
They take part in Mardi Gras, drive
around town in their golf cart, host
a steady flow of visitors at their guest
cottage, and are getting ready to walk the
Camino de Santiago pilgrimage with five
other couples from Bay St. Louis.
Kathy and Rich Feirn’s journey
south started with a motorhome and a
Wisconsin winter.
In November 2000, Rich wasn’t ready
to winterize their new motorhome, so the
86 | November 2026 Wausau couple pulled out a map and saw
that Biloxi was nearly directly south.
They drove for two days, spent two days
on the Coast, then drove home for two
days. They returned in February and kept
finding reasons to come back. Eventually,
they were spending as much as six months
a year in Biloxi.
Long before becoming full-time residents
in 2016, they had already become part of
the community—joining the Gulf Coast
Carnival Association, volunteering, and
building friendships.
Ning and John Wiebner discovered Bay
St. Louis through family.
The former Caterpillar employees had
traveled around the world and frequently
visited New Orleans. Trips to see Ning’s
cousin in Waveland introduced them to
Old Bay Town while they were living in
China.
After retiring in 2015, they gave away
their furniture and belongings, walked the
Camino de Santiago in Spain, and started
their next chapter on the Coast.
One Bay St. Louis house eventually
became three—neighboring pink homes
used by their children, grandchildren,
friends, and sometimes guests from their
churches.
But what surprised Ning most wasn’t the
scenery. It was how quickly they felt they
belonged.
John made friends through a Friday
morning breakfast group, Rotary, and
Kathy and Rich Feirn
John and Ning Wiebner
community service. Their grandchildren
have spent summers at local camps,
creating their own Bay St. Louis
memories.
“We’ve lived a lot of places,” Ning said.
“We know the Coast is unique.”
And maybe Kathy Feirn summed up the
snowbird-to-local transformation best.
“I read that you should move to where
you never have to go on vacation again,”
she said. “That’s really what we did.”
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