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By Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Writer BILOXI, Miss. — More than 150 years of history guide every brush stroke by Philip Ward and Linda Croxson as they dab thin lines of paint on walls and ceilings inside one of Mississippi's most famous landmarks. Their canvas is Beauvoir, the retirement estate of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Their task is to restore painted murals that Hurricane Katrina's flood waters nearly erased. Ward and Croxson, a husband-and-wife team of painters, always keep a researcher's dossier within reach. Century-old photographs and color charts in the report show them how to painstakingly duplicate the murals as they originally were painted in 1856. "It's like trying to copy somebody's handwriting," Ward said. "You can do it accurately once. What's hard it doing the same way 10 or 15 times."... [read full story]
