This is the second recent death of a woman who was big influence in my life as I grew up in the 50s and 60s. Roughly calculating, she was a 1941 or 1942 graduate of Lake Charles High School. She worked for Camp Fire Girls for many years, starting when the CFGs had to share the Boy Scout Camp on Prien Lake. Mary Belle was instrumental in the establishment of Camp We-Ta-Wentin on Burnett Bay of the Calcasieu River. Among the many volunteers who helped build the cabins, bath houses, and lodges was a man, Hamp Hames, who would later become her husband. Mary Belle was one of those people whom, no matter where they stood around the campfire, the smoke always seemed to blow at her. I can remember standing at the final Council Fire at the end of a camp session, Mary Belle handing out awards to us campers, and invariably having to move to one side and then the other to keep from choking on the smoke as she spoke. I can still hear her speaking to me when she didn't agree with what I was saying, drawing out her words as she addressed me with "now Fi-Fi. . ." Those of us who grew up in the 50s, who shared experiences of Camp Fire Girls mourn her passing. Next time you sit around a camp fire, look into the embers and remember a great lady who are no longer with us - Mary Belle Doane Hames.