Rae Douglas

NORTHERN NEW MEXICO'S
CHRISTMAS LADY

Honored June, 1993

Lavinia Rae Douglas

Rae Douglas has driven the roads of northern New Mexico for thirty-four years, distributing food, clothing, and household goods to the needy. Her "family" lives in an area "all the way from Santa Fe up to the Colorado line."

"When I first started doing charity work, I could see that poor people didn't have Thanksgiving. They didn't have Christmas. It was just another day to them," said Rae. The "Christmas Lady" had found her calling. Rae loaded up her car and "went to each house herself giving out dozens of turkeys, chickens and anything she could find and pies, cakes, all the goodies."

She was born Lovina Rae Jackson in 1914 in Plainview, Texas. Her grandparents, Emma and Phillip Jackson, raised her and taught her to care about others, said Rae. "They taught me a long time ago when I was a little tiny girl that whenever anybody comes to you hungry and even if you don't have but one slice of bread and you divide." They also taught her how to work. "When I was five, my grandpa put a milk bucket in my hand and said, 'Let's go to the cow lot.' He gave me a cow of my own, and I learned how to milk."