TCHULA, Miss. - The deaths of six children in a mobile home fire weigh heavily on the heart and in the prayers of Rosie Howez. So, too, does the fate of the woman who faces manslaughter and neglect charges because of the fire.

Howez does not blame Angela Williams - mother to three of the children, aunt to the others. Instead, she and others in the Delta town of 2,300 say the lifelong guilt the 28-year-old woman will carry is punishment enough.

Many people in Tchula see Williams as a struggling young mother, and some say it's not unusual for people in her situation to leave children home alone, as she did the night of the fire.

"I guess you'd have to be there to know how hopeless it can be," Howez said. "I never saw Angela try to neglect her children. She sent them to school every day."

District Attorney James Powell said Williams was at a nightclub when the fire broke out early Oct. 19. The children who died that day, ranging in age from 3 to 12, included two who had been in Head Start classes that Howez taught.

Authorities said the fire probably was started by one of the candles used to light and heat the mobile home, which had no electricity, heat or water.

Williams' two surviving children, a 4-month-old who was rescued by firefighters and a child who was not staying in the trailer, are in Department of Human Services custody.

Tchula, a predominantly black town, has a median household income of $11,571, according to the 2000 Census. It is located in Holmes County, one of the 10 poorest counties in the nation, according to census figures.

Jacques Bobrowsky, president of Haley's Rights, a children's advocacy group in Boca Raton, Fla., said parents must be held accountable for their actions.

"As a parent, I would hope she would have guilt and remorse. Is that enough? Absolutely no," Bobrowsky said. "The mother should be charged to show other people that this is what will happen if you neglect your children and they die."

In 2000, an estimated 552,000 children suffered neglect and 1,200 children died of abuse or neglect nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The National Incidence Study on Child Abuse and Neglect said that, in 1993, 27.2 out of every 1,000 children suffered neglect in households with income less than $15,000 a year. Only 0.6 children out of 1,000 were neglected when a household earned at least $30,000.

But Bobrowsky said those statistics may be misleading.

"The public hears the most about cases from the lower socio-economic demographics because they do not have the means or recourses to devote to hiding it," he said.

Angela Williams and members of her family all have either been unavailable for interviews or declined comment.

In Tchula, local church leaders urged their congregations to support Williams and a community effort to either raise the woman's $75,000 bond or try to get it reduced.

Howez, 63, said she had watched younger siblings when she was as young as 5 while their parents worked the cotton fields all day.

"That's a long time to leave babies at the house, but that happened to me and that happened to my brothers and my sisters and most people that you know that grew up poor, having to struggle to make ends meet," she said.

Jessie D. Banks, Tchula's former mayor and a retired teacher, said she believes some good will come out of the tragedy, which has brought her sometimes-divided community together.

Yvonne Brown, Tchula's current mayor, said the deaths prompted her to seek $2 million in grants and donations for housing, and she's working to create parenting classes.

Still, Banks said that children in Tchula are already in good hands.

"Despite us being one of the poorest counties in the nation," she said, "we've always cared for the children."

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On the Net:

National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect: http://www.calib.com/nccanch/

Haley's Rights: http://www.haleysrights.org