Scott R. Donaho
I never knew he owned a grocery store. How did he get into the dairy business?
During the same years he had the grocery store he started accumulating some dairy cows. His father had been a dairy man and it was always something he wanted to do.
What was Sutherland Springs like back then?
Sutherland Springs when I was a small child was a resort area. They had swimming pools and natural hot springs and a big hotel. People would come from all around to enjoy the resort. After thirteen years of opperation the resort along with many local homes was destroyed in a flood. The resort was a compleet loss and owners never re-opened the hotel.
What did Sutherland Springs have to offer entertainment wise?
Absolutly nothing! There was a little grocerie store and a post office and that was about it. Your grandmother and I did not have much time for ourselves because there was always work to be done on the dairy. We did travel to surrounding towns where I would rope calves and we would go dancing occasionaly at surrounding dance halls. That was fun for us.
What was your first job?
My first job was washing dishes at home. My first paid job was a jack of all trades at a movie theater and bowling ally when I went to college in Kingsville. I don't recall the name of the place but I helped set up bowling pins, sold tickets, took flyers around town, and I helped cook in the deli area.
What were you going to school for when you first started college at A&I Kingsville?
I was studying agriculture because I fully intended to take over the family dairy.
Tell me about your rodeo days.
I loved horses, and I had an uncle who had a horse that he took down to Poth, Texas to an arena they had there. I was about sixteen years old and my brother and I had gone down there to watch, and I thought let me try that. I was successful and I got hooked and I loved it from that day on. I loved roping calves. We didn't travel far, just to the surrounding towns so your grandmother and I could get back in time to milk the cows the next morning.
Tell me about the first time you met Grandma.
Well the first time I saw her I was going to school in Kingsville and I would ride a little bus from Floresville over to 281, because it was a better highway to hitch-hike on. The bus cost a quarter to ride and I was going back to school one Saturday afternoon and your grandmother was on the bus. She had on white coveralls with red lettering that said Floresville band across it. I didn't say one word to her but I thought to myself that is one beautiful lady. Now the first time I spoke to her was some weeks later, I had come back to Floresville and your grandmother was substituting for your aunt Barbara as a ticket sales person at the Gem Movie Theater. I was going to see a cowboy movie and after the movie she was still sitting there at the ticket booth so I got up the courage and walked over to the booth and said what time to you get off? And she said "about nine" and said would you like to go to a dance. And now the funny thing about that was I didn't know how to dance. And she said "I can't go without asking my parents, so when she got off work I took her home in Floresville and asked there permission to take her to a dance. The let us go and I had her home by 11:30pm but I was the happiest man.
What did you and Grandma do for fun?
We went to movies, and went dancing. I didn't know how to dance, I wish I could do it over again, or actually I will do it over again in heaven, I want her to do the things she liked to do. We always did things I liked to do and I feel bad about that. I could have learned to dance, I would be a great dancer, and so I'm going to do that when I get to heaven.
Tell me about this picture with President Carter?
I was working for the Dairy Farms Political Action Comittee. I was going to Washington about three days a week to lobby to senators and the President to get the best wages possible for dairy farmers. The photo opportunity was actually a perk for lobbiest and we would all line up and get our picture taken with President Carter and First Lady Rosalyn.
Tell me about your decision to attend law school.
It wasn't a hard decision at all. Your grandmother and I had gone down to the valley to do some cattle shows and while we were there we just talked. We had just turned fifty, having the same exact birthday, and we talked about the first fifty years of our lives, and how we enjoyed living, and the dairy, and we decided to live our second fifty years differently. So we made some plans, I still have a paper from the Sheraton Hotel where we wrote down some goals, and she went back to school to get her degree in art and I finished my undergrad work at UTSA in San Antonio and then went on to law school at Texas Tech. It was not a hard decision at all, I wanted to do it, and I've never regretted it. I enjoy what I do very much.
What made you decide to become an ordained deacon in the Catholic Church?
I joined the seminary soon after I got out of law school. I became ordained because I did not feel complete yet. I wanted the crdentials of the ordination in order to have a voice that could be heard. I had some deep seated ideas, thoughts, and experiences that I wanted to share with other people, and in order to do that in the Roman Catholic Church I had to have the credentials to try to be of more service to other people.
If you could give young people one piece of advice what would it be?
Your base has to be spiritual. There has to be a spiritual base to grow from, you can't just snap your fingers and be there. It's a life long progression towards God and to overcome our egos because as long as we let our egos make our decisions and drive you, your decisions will be less than perfect.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Living out what I'm trying to say is very difficult and that's why most people don't bother to try. Never think you know it all, there is always more to learn about every subject, and always be willing to want more for another person than you want for yourself. That's what love is. Love stems from wanting others to be the best they can be, and not stepping on them to better yourself. It is a willingness to be selfless rather than selfish, and the difficulty with that is you will be abused, put down, ridiculed, and everything else that goes along with negativity because the world is not spiritually based. The important thing is to dare to be different.
List a minimum of SEVEN sources. There must be links to each of the sources within the transcription.
Here are three examples of annotated sources plus a source for photos/documents.
The Handbook of Texas Online is a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture sponsored by the Texas State Historical Association and the General Libraries at UT-Austin. It was produced in partnership with the College of Liberal Arts and the General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. Copyright © The Texas State Historical Association.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. Geographical and historical maps of continents, countries, counties, cities; maps relating to history and current news events. University of Texas Libraries.
Cost-of-Living Calculator. The calculator uses the Consumer Price Index to do the conversions between 1913 and the present. The source for the data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Consumer Price Index reflects the cost of items relative to a specific year. The American Institute for Economic Research. P.O. Box 1000. Great Barrington, Massachusetts. 01230.
Small Town Texas Projects. Palo Alto College student Michael Cavazos' project on the town of Sutherland Springs, Texas. This Small Town Project was completed in the Spring semester of 2002 as a requirement for Assistant Professor of Robert Hines's History 1302 class.
Small Town Texas Projects. Palo Alto College student Sheree Truxaw's project on the town of Floresville, Texas. This Small Town Project was completed in the Fall semester of 2005 as a requirement for Assistant Professor of Robert Hines's History 1302 class.
Texas Escapes, Sutherland Springs. This website provides photographs of Sutherland Springs, Texas, along with a brief history.
Photographs and/or documents on this website were provided by Scott R. Donaho and Lisa Dockery. Photos came from Lisa Dockery's personal colection.