Catherine Dounies (1921-2023): Self-made businesswoman overcame prejudices
Apr. 21—A pioneer among Bakersfield entrepreneurs who overcame prejudices to succeed as a woman entrepreneur, Catherine Dounies, died April 10 at the age of 101 following struggles with congestive heart failure.
Rising from humble roots in Wasco as the daughter of a ranch worker who moved from Missouri in 1919, Dounies built up skills that culminated with her becoming owner-operator of a now-prominent enterprise — Hall Letter Shop Inc. — that she expanded over decades by navigating her share of challenges and opportunities.
She told later of being shut out of post-war Wasco as a businesswoman and a Catholic, then being excluded again when trying to expand her business horizons by trying to sit in on high-level trading that took place daily amid a cloud of cigar smoke in downtown Bakersfield's financial district.
"She would try to go in there and listen and they would stop and say, 'What are you doing here?'" her daughter Rita White recounted.
Dounies went on to establish her printing business in an overwhelmingly male field. By 1993, the one-person operation she bought 30 years earlier was employing two dozen people.
Her son Greg Dounies attributes some of that success to his mother's novel mix of capabilities, and some to her active engagement with business associations, church groups and clubs dedicated to her beloved orchids.
"She loved being involved in all those organizations," he said. "She was not a person to sit around and watch TV."
Dounies was born the third child and first daughter of Frank and Barbara Zeilman in Wasco's Miller Ranch on Aug. 29, 1921. Four sisters followed before their father built the family a country home from scratch.
Growing up on the ranch Catherine fed chickens and cows and helped make soap. One day her parents gave her a typewriter on the condition she use it to get a job, which she did: Her excellent typing skills and bookkeeping training landed her in Hopper Machine Works' accounting office, where she made her way up to head bookkeeper.
In 1945 she married Don Dounie, a bus driver on the Orange Belt Bus who joined the war effort in Japan before being sent home shortly after and finding work at King Lumber Co. Catherine switched jobs around that time to work at radio station KERO, where besides being an executive assistant she sometimes took part in live radio theater performances.
With the birth of their first child Celine, she started freelance bookkeeping for local CPAs while her husband took on custom cabinet work. By the end of 1961 they had three more children.
Catherine did typing and mimeograph work for local businesses from her small home office, learning along the way about contracts and lease agreements, until she moved into an office Don helped her open up in the Haberfelde building in the heart of downtown.
She picked up an automated machine called an addressograph and expanded into what was called cold composition — a distinction from the hot lead-slinging publishers of the day. Catherine took on jobs for supermarkets and restaurants.
Buying Hall Letter Shop in 1963, she found that what she couldn't do herself she could partner on with other local businesses.
Greg started working in the shop in 1976 and continues to run what is now a smaller operation that has managed to survive profound industry disruption during the last 20 years. He said his mother was always meticulous about keeping track of finances, and that she wouldn't be intimidated by competitors who "weren't too happy to have a woman like that in the same business."
"Not many women had owned businesses like that, especially manufacturing-type," he said. "That was really rare."
Outside business hours, Catherine happened to be a huge fan of the Indianapolis 500, airplane races (she rode in the famous Goodyear Blimp) and travel.
She is survived by Sister Celine Dounies, Greg (wife Wyleen), Rita (husband Jere) and Therese Marie (husband Michael Caraway), as well as grandchildren Christopher Shawn White (Kimberly Baker), Eric Michael White (Karen), Catherine White Stein (Eric Charles) and G.J. Lusich (Randi Lyne). She is survived as well by great-grandchildren Keira Ann White, Caius Christoper White, Calvin William White, Katelyn Marilyn White, Norah Rose Stein, Audrey Corinne Stein, and Camille Joe Lusich.
Divine Mercy Chaplet is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Friday, April 28 at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 900 H St. Rosary begins at 9:15 a.m., followed at 9:45 a.m. by Mass of Christian Burial. Interment will take place at 11:15 a.m. at Union Cemetery, followed at noon by a funeral reception back at St. Francis Hall.
The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Francis Parish School at stfranschool.org under the "give now" option honoring Catherine Ann Dounies.
