News/Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21 , 2003

Hancock Bank shares Hayden masterwork with LASM

BATON ROUGE, LA (May 21, 2002) - This week, through the fine arts commitment of one of America's strongest, safest five-star financial institutions, a masterpiece of luminous artistic and humanistic proportions will brighten the entrance to Louisiana's newest and most impressive gateway to the galaxy.

On loan indefinitely from Hancock Bank to the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum (LASM) in Baton Rouge, the late Frank Hayden's Honduran mahogany relief sculpture "A Sequence of Life" now hangs prominently in the gallery connecting LASM to the Irene W. Pennington Planetarium and ExxonMobil Space Theater - one of the country's most sophisticated multi-media theaters. Hayden, an eminent African-American sculptor whose stellar creative genius was prematurely extinguished by an untimely death at age 53, was Southern University's first Distinguished Professor. He spent most of his life in Louisiana.

"As avid supporters of fine arts and education, we at Hancock Bank consider it a great honor to share Frank Hayden's masterpiece with fellow Louisianans and visitors," said Hancock Bank of Louisiana Chairman and President A. Hartie Spence. "Frank Hayden's internationally acclaimed talent and Baton Rouge's state-of-the-art museum and planetarium stand among the Gulf South's crowning achievements."

Hancock's gift of the monumental Hayden piece coincides with the May 24, 2003, grand opening of the planetarium and the Bert S. Turner Family Atrium and Ivan Mestrovic Gallery. Hayden, himself a renowned artist-scholar, studied with the famous Yugoslavian Mestrovic, whom French artist Auguste Rodin touted as the "greatest sculptor of his day."

The Sculpture
Originally commissioned by American Bank and Trust Company in 1974, "A Sequence of Life" (sometimes called "The Seven Elements") hung in the lobby of Hancock Bank at One American Place until last week. Hancock Bank acquired One American Place and the sculpture during a 1990 merger with American Bank.

Collectively more than four feet high, 22 feet wide, and 10 inches deep, the nine-piece sculpture's seven figural groups suggest several themes: the seven days of the week, the seven days of creation, and, most notably, the seven progressive stages of human life - (from left to right) the beginning, family, building and growth, recreation, knowledge, community concern, and love and retirement. Open-ended forms symbolically support each motif. Appraised based on the rarity of large-scale wooden works by master sculptors and composed of numerous separate wood sections, "The Sequence of Life" requires careful, puzzle-like assembly to hang.

The Artist

Born June 10, 1934, and raised by his mother amid the poverty of a Memphis, TN, housing project, Frank Hayden overcame a speech impediment to pursue secondary education at St. Augustine High School in Memphis. He received a scholarship to Xavier University in New Orleans, earned a B.A. in fine arts, with a minor in German, and won ten scholarships to different graduate schools. Hayden chose Notre Dame University in South Bend, IN, to study under Ivan Mestrovic's tutelage and earned an M.F.A. in sculpture. In 1959, he received a Fulbright Scholarship - and later, additional fellowships - for art study with renowned twentieth-century European instructors and masters.

Hayden returned to Louisiana from Europe with his wife and four children, and from September 1961 until his death in 1988, taught drawing, sculpture, aesthetics, and art appreciation at Southern University. In 1985, Southern University named Hayden its first Distinguished Professor, and in 1987, he received an honorary doctorate from Madonna College in Livonia, MI. Hayden died in January 1988, the result of a tragic incident in which Hayden's son shot the sleeping sculptor.

Designed to teach and inspire, Hayden's works reflect strong religious and philosophical beliefs and involve viewers in aesthetically soothing, fluidly simplistic interpretations of history and humanity. Hayden's major public works are displayed throughout Baton Rouge in churches, on the campuses of Louisiana State University and Southern University, and at Galvez and Riverfront downtown plazas. Hayden presented one of his most prestigious commissions, a small bronze entitled "St. Martin de Porres," to Pope John Paul II on behalf of United States African-American Roman Catholics to commemorate the pontiff's 1987 visit to New Orleans and the 25th anniversary of the saint's canonization. One of Hayden's last works was a white alabaster sculpture, "The Prodigal Son."

Hancock Bank

Hancock Holding Company (NASDAQ: HBHC), parent company of Hancock Bank (Mississippi) and Hancock Bank of Louisiana, has assets of over $4.0 billion. Founded in 1899, Hancock Bank operates 104 full-service offices and 141 automated teller machines throughout South Mississippi and Louisiana, as well as subsidiaries Hancock Investment Services, Inc., Hancock Insurance Agency, Hancock Mortgage Corporation, and Harrison Finance Company.

Additional corporate information and online banking and bill pay services are available at www.hancockbank.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
R. Paul Maxwell, AVP, Corporate Communications
P.O. Box 4019, Gulfport, MS 39502
1.800.522.6542 (x. 85252) or 228.214.5252
paul_maxwell@hancockbank.com