Abilene People: Donna Albus

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ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Our guest on this episode of Abilene People is Donna Albus a name synonymous with civic pride, beautification, and community leadership. A recipient of the National Keep America Beautiful Award, named in honor of Lady Bird Johnson, Donna has long been a driving force behind Abilene’s most inspiring initiatives.

As a passionate organizer and fundraiser for the Abilene Preservation League, she played a vital role in advancing one of the city’s crown jewels, The Grace Museum. But Donna’s influence stretches far beyond preservation. She is the creative mind behind the Abilene Clean and Proud campaign and the unforgettable “Myrtle’s Coming. Get Your Bed Ready” project, through which she helped sell and plant more than 8,300 crape myrtles across the city. That beautification effort transformed parks, streets, and the rail corridor between North First and South First and it even captured national and international attention. In the podcast, Donna shares how that vision took root and blossomed into a movement.

Born and raised in Knox City, Texas, Donna was a standout four-sport athlete excelling in tennis, volleyball, and basketball, and even running hurdles despite standing just 5’2”. Her competitive spirit carried into her career, where she broke barriers as the first female driver and salesperson for Tom’s Snacks in Texas, and only the second in the nation. Nicknamed the “Candy Lady” (or sometimes the “Candy Man”), she recalls being told she’d taken a man’s job, an experience that only fueled her determination to succeed.

As a two-term Abilene City Councilwoman, Donna championed projects that shaped the city’s future, most notably the DoubleTree by Hilton Abilene Downtown Convention Center Hotel, a key part of the downtown revitalization effort. Though not without controversy, she views the project as a testament to what can be achieved through cooperation, collaboration, and compromise, values she believes America as a whole could stand to rediscover.

Donna Albus is many things: preservationist, environmentalist, public servant, and visionary. But above all, she remains Abilene’s head cheerleader. Tune in to hear a lively and heartfelt conversation with one of Abilene’s most influential citizens of the past many years, Donna Albus.