• By CHANTE DIONNE WARREN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 14, 2009 - Page: 1A

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A woman who was among those who saved the historic Magnolia Mound Plantation house has been named this year’s Golden Deeds winner.

On Tuesday, the Inter-Civic Council and The Advocate recognized Sue Turner for her many years of work with museums and in historic restoration and preservation, naming her the recipient of the 68th annual Golden Deeds Award.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Turner, 82, said Tuesday night, shortly after learning of the honor.

“I’ve only done what I enjoyed doing and I’ve profited more than I could ever give in return.”

Turner, a resident of Baton Rouge and a native of Plaquemine who was married to the late Bert Turner, reared five children. She said she never stepped foot into a museum until she was 21.

“I was in New York for the first time and I went to the Whitney Museum and I asked the lady what was I supposed to do,” she said. “I’ve been visiting museums ever since.”

Turner has received national recognition for her preservation and advisory work with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She said she will be catching a plane today to attend the trust’s national conference in Nashville.

Turner is also a member of the Louisiana Museum Foundation, served on the board of directors for the Louisiana State Museum, and is a board of trustees member and adviser on the National Trust, a member of the board of directors for the BREC Foundation, and founding member of Louisiana Association of Museums.

“Sue Turner’s decades-long association with BREC has provided a sense of continuity,” Carl Stages, executive director of the East Baton Rouge Recreation and Park Commission Foundation, wrote in his nomination letter.

“Having been involved for such a long period of time, she has seen the ebb and flow of different issues, community perception and attitudes, and always brings to the table that kind of institutional knowledge and sense of history,” Stages wrote.

Some of Turner’s notable accomplishments include her efforts and those of others to save Magnolia Mound Plantation’s historic house from developers who in the mid-1960s had proposed using the site for condominiums.

Turner, who later became a member of the Friends of Magnolia Mound Plantation Board of Directors, said residents and organizations aggressively petitioned the local and state government to save the site. By 1972, Magnolia Mound Plantation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and restoration of the main house began that year.

Turner and her husband also restored Live Oak Plantation in St. Francisville.

“In my heart, I believe as citizens that we have an obligation to the place in which we live and it’s one of my greatest wishes to see so many of the things we hoped for be realized,” she said. “Citizens have to care and be involved.”

Turner will be honored at a banquet scheduled 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Marriott Hotel, 5500 Hilton Ave. Tickets are $40 each. Call (225) 293-3674 or e-mail dcarroll23@hotmail.com.

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