A Covington resident and champion for battered women has been named as a recipient of the 2008 Angel Award by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana.

Ellen “Deedee” Suthon serves on the board of Safe Harbor, a residential shelter for women and children who are survivors of domestic violence. She joined Safe Harbor in the mid-1990s, but her legacy of service dates to a much earlier time.

Suthon first began volunteering with the YWCA more than 50 years ago, following in the footsteps of her mom and grandmother.

Deedee Suthon

“My grandmother was president of the New Orleans chapter, and my mother was the volunteer coordinator,” said Suthon. “My family has always believed that if you’re in a certain position, you do what you can to help others.”

After several years with the organization, Suthon became president herself in 1963, at a time when the world was drastically changing. The YWCA had started more than 100 years earlier, when the first boarding houses for young female workers had opened in New York City, and the agency was at the forefront of the fight to empower women.

By the time Suthon came on board, she said, women didn’t want to be protected as much.

“They were getting out there on their own, getting their education, starting to get more jobs,” she said. “There were still a lot of problems, though, that nobody wanted to talk about.”

She created a rape crisis program, housed in the former Cook Paint Company building, adjacent to the YWCA on Tulane Avenue. It was one of the first programs of its kind, and she remembers the reaction she got when she went in search of funding.

“There were 40 people on the board of United Way at the time, all men, and they said, ‘You’re going to do WHAT?’” she said.

As the program expanded to include victims of domestic violence, Suthon brought in professionals, social workers and psychologists, to help her understand the nature of the problem. She learned that women are often rendered completely powerless in an abusive situation, until the batterer turns his attention to a child, and that batterers are often victims of abuse themselves.

Suthon said the reason she started these programs, and continues to this day, is because the problem is one that affects all levels of society.

In addition, the demeaning of women, she said, can start as early as the 7th grade, when young boys begin replicating what they’ve seen at home. It can start very quietly, she said, with something as simple as questioning one’s choice of outfit.

As a recipient of this year’s Angel Award, Suthon joins seven other individuals from around the state, so honored for their outstanding work on behalf of Louisiana’s children.

Chosen from more than 50 nominees, each winner will receive a $20,000 grant for their organization from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation.

Serena Westberry, past president of the board at Safe Harbor, nominated Suthon for the award.

“Deedee is a wonderful person, and such an inspiration,” said Westberry. “She is absolutely selfless in donating her time, money and energy, not only to Safe Harbor but to many other charities on the Northshore as well.”

Westberry went on to say that while many people join a board for recognition or personal gain, Suthon, whom she also described as a “fearless rebel,” cares nothing for such perks, and wants only to do what’s right. She credits Suthon with keeping the agency running for years through “sheer will.”

Suthon brushes such praise aside.

“I don’t do this all by myself,” she said. “There are many, many people who contribute to make Safe Harbor what it is.”

She hopes the grant money can be used towards securing a college internship for the shelter. She would also like to see outreach programs started in high school or even middle school, before “hormones start raging.”

“Maybe we can teach them they can get mad as the dickens at a date, but they don’t have to take it on someone with physical or verbal abuse,” she said.

Suthon will accept her award in an Oct. 27 ceremony in Baton Rouge. In the meantime, she’ll continue working hard at selling tickets and securing sponsors for Safe Harbor’s “Light Up the Night” gala, coming up on Oct. 10. In reflecting on what the award might mean for the organization, she acknowledged that while her work has often been rewarding, it’s also frustrating as well.

“We can’t show you anything, we can’t trot a survivor out to show you how well she’s doing,” she said. “But the most satisfying thing to see is a woman who has begun to hold her head up, who brings home her first paycheck, and we know we’ve broken the cycle.”