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I'm John Denison and welcome to Louisiana Legends.

I'm here today to sit down with Donna Saurage 2021 Louisiana Legend and somebody that I'm looking forward to for some insight or tips on the best coffee in America.

You'll learn more about Donna now in this biography.

Donna Saurage is a woman of integrity a tremendous sense of family and commitment, and she leads by example.

Donna Saurage has always been someone that loves other people around her and gives them the belief that they can make a difference in this world.

In the little town of Ada, Oklahoma a Louisiana legend was born .The baby girl's parents, Helen and Bill Bright, divorced when she was just an infant.

And Donna Bright, as she was known, then went to live with her grandparents Alfa and Everett Porter.

They lived in a small shotgun house on a dirt road in the settlement of being Oklahoma.

Donna's first grade classroom was in a small schoolhouse that included all 12 grades.

And she was an only child.

And she took many lessons from that experience of the hard work it takes to raise a family, to make a dollar to to make your way.

The Second World War was raging, and Donna's father served in the Pacific.

Her mother worked throughout the war in Tulsa.

After the war, she lived for a while with her father and stepmother.

She attended second grade in the town of Coffeyville, Kansas.

By third grade, she moved to Dallas to live with her mother and stepfather, Kelly Maddox, and changed her name to Maddox.

And then more moves to Amarillo.

To Lake Charles and finally to Baton Rouge.

Two weeks after settling in Baton Rouge, 15 year old Donna met the love of her life.

Norman Saurage He was a student at University High, and she was a cheerleader at Baton Rouge High after graduating in 1957.

The couple married their 58 year marriage was filled with adventure.

I think people don't may not realize how adventurous she is.

You know, I loved and lived through the many stories of her travels with Norman.

Absolutely adventurous.

They raised their Catalina sailboat for 12 years and cruised the Gulf Coast in the classic Cape Dory for another 35 years.

My mother is very competitive.

You know, I grew up in a sailing family, though the whole family was the crew, and we'd sail on a small boat and we'd race it.

When my mother got to be the skipper for this one race that we had each year, and she won every time she entered.

And they loved flying.

Both were licensed pilots.

Donna's roles in the Baton Rouge community are varied from general manager of the new residents in to creator of retail stores for Community Coffee.

She helped start a part of the company called the Community Coffee Place.

And it was really the precursor to today's coffeehouses it was a coffee house before there were coffee houses closest to her heart has been her involvement with more than 50 nonprofits meeting the needs of people in Baton Rouge and throughout the state.

Donna really paved the way for women, in my opinion, not only in community, but also in a professional way.

She got involved with boards and community activities back when maybe women's voices weren't heard so much She is a woman who leads by action, not just words.

She believes in everything that she does, and she stays the course to reach whatever the stated goals are.

When Donna's husband, Norman, became ill she took a leadership role in the family business.

She is the sole manager of CCC, holding the parent company of Community Coffee Corporation.

I've never had a more difficult insightful director than my own mom.

Someone who asks the right questions at the right time and without regard to who I am, is her son.

But only for the interests of helping everyone in that room get a better perspective of what we can do together.

Donna's greatest joys are her family, friends and her faith.

The Saurages raised a big family five caring, faith filled and community minded children with 13 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

My father and mother loved to be surrounded by me and my siblings.

All the children at the kitchen table.

I think the joy it really gives her to have a large family and to serve them and to listen them and enjoy watching all of us grow in a way that I believe makes her proud and reflects her values.

After 67 years in Baton Rouge, Donna says she is grateful for the opportunities and privileges she has experienced in this welcoming community.

It's been a long journey from a shotgun house on a dirt road to creating an enduring legacy of continually pushing the boundaries of excellence.

I don't think I've ever anybody as kind as my mom and and I see that not only as one of her children, but just to hear others speak of what she has done, things that that I never knew, where she really gave just her heart to other people and try to make a difference this community.

Donna, it's a pleasure to sit down with you today.

Thank you so much.

Knowing a little bit about your biography, because I did that voiceover.

You moved around quite a lot.

Tell us a little more What was your childhood like?

Oh, I did move a lot, but I had a great childhood.

I actually grew up with my grandparents out in the country in Oklahoma.

Way up in the the flat plains there of during the war, all during the war years.

And we had chickens and we had a garden and lived in this tiny little community that didn't even have a post office.

And we lived on a dirt road.

And one end of this road, there was a grocery store with one of those pumps out in front, you know, with a bulb where you could see the gasoline.

And there was a Baptist parsonage in a Baptist orphanage.

And at the other end, there was a 1st through 12th grade school and a Baptist church.

My gosh, you have a great memory of that.

Well, that's your perfect I do.

I do.

And I started my first grade in that first to 12th grade school house, one room for each grade.

And it was a great place for a kid to grow up just outdoors.

Learning how to can and cooking with my grandmother.

It was marvelous.

Do you think being an only child influenced your childhood a little differently than it probably did?

Because I think it made me self-sufficient since I did move around a lot.

Actually, I would second grade in Coffeyville, Kansas, now is that I forget to say that.

Coffeyville, Kansas.

How about that?

That was from Texas and moved to Texas in Amarillo and ended up in Louisiana.

But I think being an only child made me not depend on anyone else to entertain me.

Pretty much I had to do it myself.

And I think I think it was it was good to be an only child.

Of course, I have five children and I deprive them of that pleasure.

In moving around a little bit.

You told me before the interview that you learned how to make friends very quickly.

Well, yes, it was sink or swim.

You moved to a new place.

You either make friends or you're going to be miserable.

And I was never going to be miserable.

So you come to Baton Rouge and one of the first people you meet is Norman.

That's right.

That was two weeks after I got here.

I got this call, said, Hi, I'm Norman Saurage and I want to invite you to the Soapbox Derby.

As I can't go out with you.

You haven't met my mother.

So a couple of weeks later, he knocked on my door and said, I'm Norman Saurage and I'm here to meet your mother and ask you to the picture show.

And that was when I was 15.

Oh, my gosh, how wonderful you to have 60 years of wonderful memories.

as a couple How do you how do you make a successful marriage for all those many decades?

What do you attribute it to?

Well, for one thing, we liked each other.

Another thing we respect to each other.

And we we didn't try to change each other.

And we actually laughed and they had a good time.

We also like to do things together.

We were both sailors.

We love to sail.

We were both pilots.

We liked to fly.

We wanted children.

We loved our children.

So we had lots of children.

So I think it's because we we were very different personalities, but we really complemented one another.

And we had a good time.

I'm fascinated by, you know, hearing learning about you and Norman and and your, I'm going to call it a boat I know that's not what it's called.

It's a sailboat.

It's a it's a very long vessel.

And apparently, I mean, that is just dear to your heart that you, too, took to that.

And I had so many years of joy doing that.

We did.

We would take off for two weeks on that boat and just live on the water.

And it was just there's nothing like waking up at dawn and seeing the dawn come up over the water and watching the the dolphins and and the sea birds.

And there's nothing more peaceful are in the evening to sit out on the deck of the boat and enjoy an adult beverages the sun goes down.

It's pretty, pretty nice.

No phones, no other people around.

Did your children get your love of sailing?

Well, they did.

They all learned to sail, and they're all good sailors and but only one is still sailing.

And Hank Hank loves to sail and he's still racing.

He's still competitive.

So there's always one thing that is always.

Let me take that right.

Let's let's talk a little business.

I want to say this is where I've been really curious, because I've grown up in Louisiana, and I've known about community coffee all my life, but I didn't know so much being in north Louisiana, near Shreveport, where I grew up.

I didn't know so much about your family history and about Norman's forebears.

And so you had the idea for the community coffee stores, which was groundbreaking at the time.

Let's unfold that a little bit and tell me, what was your thought process and about what time of your lifetime did this all occur?

A job I love to talk about that.

We saw oh, back in the late seventies or 70, something like that.

We saw that young people were not drinking coffee.

They thought of coffee is oh, their parents terrible boiled coffee, percolating coffee they used to have at home.

And we had gone to the West Coast and we saw that there were stores out there selling whole being coffee and nice coffees.

And the young people were coming in and experimenting and trying it and then would come back and get a different a different roast of coffee.

And we thought, now that is a way to engage young people.

So we started the community to coffee places and I managed them and we put them in our premium stores all around Louisiana.

And we had holding coffee and and we taught people how to brew coffee properly and we had teas.

And it was the it was called the Community Coffee Place.

And it was the precursor to the six coffee house that eventually opened where we wanted work.

Young people started drinking that coffee.

And today, I think things have flipped.

I mean, coffee culture starts very young.

Yes.

And, you know, and it's just crazy how this all started.

You basically were paving the way for a national trend in the United States where we were.

We were.

And we knew that young people can drink coffee and still be nice and healthy.

I think I may have put a little coffee in my kids bottles, but but anyway, they they all grew up drinking coffee.

And, you know, in south Louisiana, Papa brings coffee, milk can wake up the whole household.

And that what they did that we did that here at Norman's father did it.

Robert's grandfather did it.

He would make coffee in the morning and for the kids, coffee and the milk and sugar.

And then his kids got older.

There would be less milk and sugar and more coffee until they were drinking real coffee.

But it was a part of the culture here and and now it's really spread all over.

And I love to see it.

Did you know then that's that CCs and Community Coffee would grow to be such a large company down the road?

No, not really.

I mean, we knew that community coffee and Community Coffee had the opportunity to grow, but we only saw it in Louisiana to begin with.

And then we moved to Texas, and we knew people were bootlegging it all the time.

They were putting it in their suitcases or the trunk of their cars, and they were taking it home with them.

And but then the opportunity came with the packaging know we had a certain we had just atmospheric packaging.

And to keep the coffee fresh it was hard to keep it fresh more than 300 miles away.

And when we got vacuum packaging or new technology, the one way valve that doesn't let any oxygen in there gave us the opportunity to have a longer shelf life.

And with a longer shelf life, we can go farther away from our roasting facility so we should remember those days before when we had coffee we buy in the store and it was kind of a loose bag.

That's right.

But then all of a sudden it came in those bricks.

That's right.

We had vacuum packaging.

Oh, we could we could really start.

And that's when we went to Texas, when we got when we got the firm pack so the technology of packaging has allowed us to go nationwide, worldwide.

And of course, we ship coffee all over the world.

Damn, well, I mean, did you when you started your first store, did you envision that you'd be shipping it and using the Internet as a way of sales?

I mean, but again, it's such a basic thing of life, especially for us.

And Louisiana coffee.

Yes, it is.

I mean, you may not have been able to do this in any other state, but you did it in a state that really enjoys this cold.

Well, we say that community coffee was really good.

Coffee before good coffee was cool because we've always had that dark roast flavor in Louisiana and that really good coffee that in other states and other cities they didn't have they had the the cheaper coffees very lightly roasted.

Some of it not real palatable.

So ours was special from the very beginning.

And we're still doing it the way you Cap Saurage did it 102 years ago.

I mean, we were keeping that same quality and that same recipe.

And it's good coffee really is.

But it has technology has allowed us to grow.

So the company celebrated 100 years in 20.

19.

That's correct.

That's correct.

My goodness.

Wow.

And we're still family owned.

That's unusual.

Yeah.

I, my children and my grandchildren are the shareholders and we're still involved and we even have a fifth generation involved and I have a grandson involved in the company so it works well.

You are in addition to being a good business person, you're also a good philanthropist and member of the community.

I had to make sure this wasn't a type of you have held leadership positions in more than 50 nonprofit organizations over 55 years.

Well, at least that.

Yeah, you obviously have a big heart and you obviously want to serve.

Tell me where that urge comes from.

Well, I do a because I think nonprofits have such an important place in the quality of life in that community.

You know, we have the public and then we have the private.

And then you have the nonprofits.

To me, there's a third leg of the stool that really makes life good.

And if if a nonprofit is well-managed, if a nonprofit has a good board that that really has a passion for the mission, they're going to do well.

And so I got involved to see what I could do to make non-profits stronger.

And it's been very fulfilling.

Fortunately, I did not have to work outside the home, and I was able to give my time to that while raising their children.

I understand.

And that's that's what I know a lot of nonprofits seek out.

I've worked with a few in my lifetime, but I think I could probably count on just two hands.

I'd need toes and a few others.

I've been at it for years.

Well, John.

Okay, I'll take that.

I'll take that.

I know it's hard to pick and choose, but please tell us some of the causes that you've gotten involved with over the years that are really dear and close to your heart.

Well, the ones that are really getting close to my heart now have to do with education, health, care, I started out really, though, with my nonprofit.

I had a real big interest in tourism and an historic preserve Asian.

And I learned from just some wonderful people who were on those boards what made boards really work well.

So those were really my mentors.

In the tourism and in the preservation.

But then I kind of moved into a real interest in education that is a major focus for community.

Coffee is education, and so I became more involved in that.

And then it just kind of moved into health care.

And I've been chair of a couple of hospital boards here.

So it's it is that's what I'm truly interested in.

Although other things do pick my interest.

Well, I understand that as someone who's also been involved in history, but education and health care kind of dovetail one into the other.

For the better educated we are as Louisianans, the better we can take care of ourselves and our families.

And I mean, have you found it in through community coffee?

What has the the company been able to do to continue that type of philanthropy that you personally believe in?

We actually give a great deal to philanthropy.

And we have a citizenship committee of the board that I chair.

And we very carefully have crafted pillars that we support, such as education, the military and first responders and that what I call our heroes.

We we we really are into that.

And then also the sustainable funding for coffee farmers.

And in you realize we depend on other countries to provide our beans.

And we want to make sure that that those farmers that are taking care of those coffee trees and providing us with our raw product have the resources they need.

So we're also helping down there.

You have a global reach.

We do.

We do.

You've been a female entrepreneur at a time when that was not typical.

Tell me what that's been like.

Well, I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur, but I thought that if something needed to be done, needed to figure out how to get it done.

And I think that's that, I guess, made me an entrepreneur, that I didn't just want to do what other people did, but maybe Pioneer and it's been exciting because when it really comes to fruition and you see it work, you know you've made a difference.

There is a gleam in your eye when you say that, and I love sitting here with you because you're just so full of energy.

And I know you're also probably a very well read and curious person to where does all this energy come from?

What motivates that?

I think that my upbringing, I believe my grandparents, my parents, they were very curious also.

And my mother and father were actors and they were literally, literally, literally my my father was an actor in Chicago vaudeville and then went with NBC actually came here because he came to manage a local radio station.

So I think we've always had this little bit of wanting to do something out there and and find excitement in books.

Our plays are what's going on in the community.

News.

Yeah, news.

Exactly.

Oh, really?

It's.

Yeah, I don't this question is I know this is going to be a tough one, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

When you look back over your life and work, what are you most proud of?

I'm sure there are lots of things you could put into that answer.

I'm really most proud of my children.

My children are each of them are so much more accomplished than I ever I that they have accomplished things that I never could.

I'm proud of every one of them.

I have five of them.

And they're from one is an artist, one is a professor, two are entrepreneurs, one is a farmer.

But they're so accomplished and I'm so proud of them.

And as I see my grandchildren grow up, I'm very proud of what they're accomplishing.

So I would have to say my children and also I'm very proud of community coffee and the progress that is made in the fact that we are still here after all of these years and that our employees, I think, love it as much as we do.

That makes a big difference.

It makes a big difference.

It's like we're one big family, and I love it when they say instead of your company or the company, they talk about my company, my company, community, coffee, and they work for the company.

I love to hear that.

Is there anything you would have done differently looking back over the years?

What would I oh yes.

There is the only thing I've ever regretted with the things that we didn't do.

The opportunities that were there come on this trip with us and see this.

Oh, can't don't have the time.

So our only regret the things that I did not do and take take advantage of that were offered to me.

Well, you're an adventurer at heart.

I'm sure you've been all over the globe.

Does any one trip stand out?

Is something special?

One trip that really stands out was when Norman and I went sailing in the Fijian islands and we chartered the sailboat and we were able to sail to the outer islands of Fiji and really walk on the islands where there was no electricity and people were still living so simply and it was it was just beautiful.

And so now what does the next chapter look like for you?

That the next chapter I don't know.

I guess it a lot of that I think is going to have to do with my job, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.

And what their interests are, and I always want to be there for them.

Oh wow.

So I think you will focus on that.

I'll oh, I'm still active with the company and I think as long as I add value, I'd like to stay active with it because I love the business.

That sounds perfect.

We'd love for you to stay with it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

This has been such a pleasure.

Well, thank you, John.

I've enjoyed talking to you.

I appreciate it.

And thank you very much.

Our 20,21 Louisiana legend Donna Saurage For a copy of this program