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Donna Liggins |
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 Interviews 08
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Many Facets of My
Life Born in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 13,
1943, Donna Liggins is not a true Tucson Native, but it is here that she has
called home for the past 49 years. She is what you might refer to as an
Honorary Tucsonan. She was raised by a very God-fearing and loving
mother, father, and grandmother who raised her with a firm hand. Donna was the
baby for 17 years and then along came her beautiful little sister, Rochelle
Magee. It is with a firm hand that she raised her two daughters, Annette
and Crystal. Donna has a loving and supporting husband of 19 years.
With this union came 3 sons for a total of 5 children, 7 grandchildren, and 1
great-grandchild. Life is about choices. Donna has
made some difficult choices in her life when she arrived at a fork in the
road. One such life choice was the choice to purchase a home instead of
going to college. Donna was given the opportunity to attend the University
of Arizona through an offer of a scholarship through a program run by Richard
Davis. She was a single parent at the time and reluctantly, but
graciously, imparted the scholarship to her good friend and, instead, took
advantage of the opportunity to purchase a house. She was only working 20
hours per week, so she couldnt afford the down payment. It was through
the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Gaston that she was able to purchase her first
home, which she still owns. Another difficult choice was to work for
the City of Tucson instead of taking a job with Raytheon, then known as Hughes
which was notorious for being one of the highest paying employers in the
city. She had put in applications to both places and both offered
employment at the same time. So she had a tough decision to make.
Should she opt for the higher paying (full-time) job and take a chance that she
would likely be laid off or should she take the city job for less pay and less
hours. Since Hughes was also notorious for frequently laying off employees,
especially around the holidays, she opted to accept employment with the city
even though it meant less pay. Eventually, she earned a full-time position
and worked her way to Supervisor. In her almost 40 years with the City of
Tucson, Donna has worked at nine different centers. She has worked for the
Northwest Center the longest and considers it to be her home base. Donna
is a well-respected and loved supervisor and mentor. She cares about the
community and the participants of the center and it shows through her tireless
efforts to obtain the things that are needed in the community as a whole.
Living so close to the Northwest Center,
Donna is very active in the surrounding community and has served in numerous
organizations. She is the president of the NAACP, the Vice-President of the
Black Womens Task Force, President of the Social Justice Ministry, the festival
chair of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee, member of the Juneteenth
Committee (responsible for the booths at the annual festival), and is a member
of the Progressive Women Civic Club (which is the National Association of
Colored Women). The accomplishment of which Donna is most proud is becoming a child of God. She was always in the church, being baptized at 8 years of age. For her to understand and accept what it means to be a Christian was a great step in her life, because now she walks by faith in all her endeavors in life. All the things that she has accomplished have been done through Christ. |
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