How a Texas native started her career in Shreveport
Editor’s Note: The following is an ongoing series by Jo Ann Garner about a select group of women who live life beautifully. These are the stories of women who fulfilled their roles as homemakers, businesswomen and went on to enrich their lives with tremendous accomplishments rooted in self-expressed beauty.
Susanne Neal Golden came to Shreveport from Carthage, Texas, in 1960 to attend Centenary College and Northwestern University where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees respectively. During that era, Shreveport was home to the prestigious modeling schools of John Robert Powers and Mister Lynn who set the curve high for their students. Models were taught to present fashion in an elegant manner and with extraordinary class. Golden was one of those models for two decades, appearing in television commercials and style events throughout the city.
Golden carved out a busy, productive and exciting life in Shreveport. She married and had children. However, her childhood connection to the city of Carthage, its people and her beloved family land there has never waned.
When she was growing up, her father was a two-term mayor of Carthage as well as banker, businessman and rancher. Her life was filled with adventure in that vast east Texas countryside, and she still considers herself a “country girl at heart.”
Her memories are fond ones; her stories, captivating. Especially the recollection of the 1955 grand opening of her father’s new feed store. To make the event special, he decided to hire entertainment.
Knowing he was looking for a performer, Golden suggested a new singer who was becoming a very big hit at the Hayride. For $300, her father hired the singer and on the day of the opening, a polite, well-mannered young man with sideburns showed up at the feed store driving a pink Cadillac along with two band members – that performer was Elvis Presley.
He performed (with no “above the waist” restrictions) using the loading dock of the store for his stage. All who heard his musical performance on that day would soon realize that they had, with no doubt, witnessed significant history in the making from the future King of Rock and Roll. Her family saved and framed the cancelled $300 check made payable to Presley but, unfortunately, it was stolen.
Golden was an only child, so the Texas land owned by her family since 1913 has become her inheritance as well as a sacred responsibility which she honors.
“It’s my love,” she said sincerely. Before her mother died in 2010 at 100 years of age, she urged Golden to turn her dreams for the land into reality while she was here to enjoy and experience it. So, in 2004 Golden rolled up her sleeves and became the proverbial woman on a mission. Combining her intuitive instincts, which had brought Elvis to perform at the opening of the feed store 50 years earlier, with her eye for style that she acquired as a working model earlier in her life, she created a bucolic haven that has been described by her friends as “magical.”
A warm, inviting log cabin houses friends and family who gather for visits. Its décor consists of mementos and treasures like the first saddle Golden owned as a child which coincidentally found its way back to her decades later.
Views from the cabin’s porches provide a built-in nature study. Roscoe, Golden’s horse that she still rides, runs freely in the surrounding pastures. She has made certain that the nearby pond, with a fountain at its center, stays filled with fish because she literally stocked it herself, hauling fish to the pond in plastic water-filled bags. Guests can fish from the pond and relax in the cabana.
The preservation of her family’s land has been a personal hands-on project for Golden. She has carefully overseen each step along the way to guarantee that this cherished legacy will exist for her future generations.
– Jo Ann Garner
