Chamber president remembered for work to improve St. Mary

People who worked and served with St. Mary Chamber President Donna Meyer said she used a phrase often about the public service projects in which she became involved.
The phrase was: “People are depending on this.”
“Every time we interacted,” said state Sen. Bret Allain at a Monday memorial service for Meyer, “it was always about the people. …
“You couldn’t tell her no,” said Allain, R-Franklin, at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium service. “There was no way you could tell her no.”
About 90 friends, business leaders and public officials gathered Monday to remember Meyer, who died Oct. 3 at M.D. Anderson in Houston after a battle with cancer. Meyer, 70, had been president of the St. Mary Chamber for 17 years, and didn’t resign the post until three days before she died.
Meyer was praised Monday for her efforts on St. Mary Chamber projects including Bikers on the Bayou, the Bayou BBQ Bash, Taste of St. Mary and especially Leadership St. Mary, which introduces potential leaders to important aspect of the parish’s economy and government.
Meyer hoped to bring high school students into the leadership program. Organizers hope to create the Donna Meyer Outstanding Senior Leadership Scholarship to be awarded to a graduating senior in a St. Mary high school.
“We’d like to solicit donations to help her legacy grow,” said her husband Ed Meyer.
“Donna Meyer was a force,” Allain said. “Most of the time, she was an unstoppable force. But she was never forceful.”
Ed Meyer said he was amazed at his wife’s empathy and her ability to put aside grudges or bitterness, even after their first argument at the beginning of 41 years of marriage.
When they ran a center for developmentally disabled infants and toddlers in Baton Rouge, she persuaded him to take in a family whose home had burned the same week the father lost his job, and later a single mother.
“We were married 41 years, and I was still discovering things about Donna,” Ed Meyer said.
When his wife was diagnosed with cancer, she said, “‘I don’t want to die. I have too many things to do,’” Ed Meyer said.
St. Mary Chamber board Chairman Raymond Price said he knew Donna Meyer for 15 years.
“When you asked her to do something,” Price said, “that’s all she focused on, and she got back to me in a short period of time.”
Past Chamber Chairman Jason Watson said Meyer was concerned with the well-being of others even during her own illness.
“I can tell you that every event I went to, everything I did with her, was a blessing,” Watson said.
Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna said he’s sometimes described as a high-energy person, just as Meyer has been.
But “I’m nothing compared to Donna,” Dragna said.
Meyer’s funeral was Saturday in her native Baton Rouge.
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