The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, provides many ecosystem services including but not limited to building reef structures that serve as a major contributor to local, regional, and global carbonate budgets. To fill the role as a major contributor despite being a rapidly degrading resource, an oyster reef must maintain a positive feedback loop by the addition of shell from living oysters that, in death, create habitat that promotes larval recruitment and thus reef growth. If shell is broken down or removed at a rate higher than it is added, then a reef will enter a negative feedback loop and ultimately cease to exist. In 2016 a mortality event occurred in the western Mississippi Sound that provided the opportunity to monitor the status of reef recovery over an eight-year time frame. Here, we explore the changes in composition of one reef over time as a case study of a reef recovering from mass mortality and failed recruitment events. The presence of living oysters and the resultant boxes on a reef is a crucial component for reef recovery. Ultimately restoration and management efforts will need to include a shell budget in order to have long-term success measured by reef growth and addition of adult oysters to the population.