Love & Best Dishes: 2026 Texas Bag Lady Foundation Fundraiser

Name: Love & Best Dishes: 2026 Texas Bag Lady Foundation Fundraiser | Open Video
Uploaded: 2026-07-14T11:06:48+00:00
Duration: 22 min 25 s

0:00
- Y'all, I just had a wonderful,
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wonderful experience this past weekend.
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Eddie and Michael and I went to Dallas, Texas,
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and then on to Houston, Texas, to do an event
0:15
for The Bag Lady Foundation,
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and I met some wonderful new people.
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One of 'em was dinner at the country club,
0:26
which was wonderful.
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They did all my recipes and they made me so proud,
0:33
'cause when somebody else does my cooking, you know,
0:35
I kind of get a little pit in my stomach,
0:38
and hope that it's good.
0:41
But it was delicious.
0:43
And then the second night in Houston,
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we had a concert with Cam Cody, Cameron Cody.
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And he is one of the most wonderful pianist
0:59
in this entire world,
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and he does concerts all over the place.
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And it was such a wonderful, wonderful experience.
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In fact, I think it's so wonderful
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I wanna share with y'all some of the footage
1:14
from our experience in Texas.
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You know, I love you, Texas folks.
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Y'all have always been so kind, good and loving
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and supportive, and I will always appreciate that.
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So y'all join me on our little trip to Texas.
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And go, Bag Lady!
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(people chattering)
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I'm so happy.
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- We're glad that you're here.
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So, this is your spot right here.
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You're the center of attention.
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(people chattering)
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Well, y'all, we are so glad that you are here.
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This is so exciting for me and for all of us
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to have one of my favorite people
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that I've grown up with comes to Houston.
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And so what I want you to know is that this is a filming
2:03
that will be edited later and released.
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So, if we mess up, we will stop.
2:07
- And if you're not who you're supposed to be with...
2:10
(guests laughing)
2:20
- Remember, if you show up on the Megatron,
2:23
you never know who will.
2:25
(guests laughing)
2:27
- That's right.
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- But this is so important to me
2:30
because at the end of the day,
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this is about helping other people.
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And I think that we both share that love
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for paying it forward.
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- Yes.
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- So what will happen is I will play some music
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and then I will prompt, follow up with a question about...
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Both of us were raised, not far from each other,
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in South Georgia, at different times.
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(guests laughing)
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- Bit earlier. - Really?
2:57
My soul was earlier.
2:58
It's about 80.
3:01
But what I want you to know is that when this concludes,
3:06
we will be going to the garden party
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and we will give you that address soon as it's over.
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And myself and some of us who are, kind of, in charge
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of making that work, we will jet out of here very quickly.
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But what I want you to know is that you will have
3:20
all the time in the world to get your photo made with Paula,
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speak to her and all that.
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So you may see her leave quickly from here,
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but you will have the perfect opportunity.
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It's about two miles, just around the corner,
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where we will dine and have a vid evening.
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It's going be gorgeous weather.
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- Wonderful. - And so...
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- It was pouring down rain when we came.
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I said, this is not gonna be a pretty garden.
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(guests laughing)
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- But it didn't, it's the Lord.
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- Thank goodness, yes.
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- He has made it happen for us.
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So we're gonna go ahead and get started.
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And like I said, if we mess up, this can be edited later,
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you'll see us stop.
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And we really appreciate being here.
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- Oh, I'm thrilled.
4:00
I used to come to Houston and Dallas all the time
4:03
and did live shows.
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And I was telling a couple of my new friends a while ago,
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I was at some beautiful auditorium, a theater,
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quite a few years back, and I'd do live shows on stage.
4:21
And I was running my mouth, and all of a sudden,
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it sounded like the kingdom of wild horses
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behind the drapes on stage.
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And I stopped and I turned around.
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I said, what is that?
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Is everything all right?
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And about that time, they opened the drapes
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and out walked Fresno and Ms. Barbara Bush.
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They had come get welcomed me to Houston.
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And that touched me, like, in incredible ways.
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To me, that said so much about what kind of people they are.
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And I'll never forget.
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And ask me how many pictures I have of that.
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(guests laughing)
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So I have to remember.
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And before we get started, Cam,
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may I introduce my husband? - Excellent.
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- Michael, come on up, where ever you're sitting.
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(guests applauding)
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This is my husband, Michael. - Hello.
5:29
- He loves H-Town.
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He's a harbor pilot.
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So I told you today, I said, you know,
5:35
we could move to Houston and you could keep on working.
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(guests laughing)
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And one more person. What?
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No, thank you.
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Put that down, right in there.
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He tries to give me things he don't want on all the time.
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So, are we ready? - Yes.
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And also, some of the board of The Bag Lady Foundation
6:01
are here. - Yes, yes.
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Yes and I'm going to introduce them.
6:05
Ben and Leland and Diane.
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Oh, there she is.
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Leland and Eddie.
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If any of y'all watch my YouTube shows,
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Eddie does all the filming,
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and I'm constantly saying, "Eddie, Eddie!
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Eddie, where is this pot?"
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- Here we go.
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"Georgia On My Mind."
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(piano music)
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(piano music continues)
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7:01
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Help me sing the song.
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- I can't sing!
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(guests laughing)
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♪ Georgia, Georgia ♪
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♪ No peace I find ♪
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♪ Just an old, sweet song ♪
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♪ Keeps Georgia on my mind ♪
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(guests applauding)
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- Thank you.
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What I'm here for is some music and a few Southern stories.
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We both love South Georgia,
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and where we live, it's a beautiful part of our country.
8:16
- Yes. - What we want
8:17
to start out with today is why we're all here.
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We want you to tell us about The Bag Lady
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and what it means to you, and why and how it became.
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- And I would love to.
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And I wanna thank Cam and team for doing this
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for The Paula Deen's Bag Lady Foundation
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and my members of that foundation.
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This was so kind, Cam, for you to do this,
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and I'm most appreciative.
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Okay, so I'll quickly try to tell the story.
8:54
In 1989, on June the 19th,
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I started a business called "The Bag Lady."
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I was a point in my life where I knew
9:08
that I had to make some changes
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because my husband's sickness was driving me crazy,
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and he refused to put down the alcohol.
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And I tried for 27 years to change that,
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and I realized the only thing I could change was myself
9:28
because it was turning me into a person that I did not like.
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And so, on June the 19th, a week or two before,
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our income tax refund had come in
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and he gave me $200 to start my business with.
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And I could tell you exactly to this day what I spent it on.
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And I decided I had no talent,
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couldn't sing, couldn't dance, couldn't play the piano.
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(guests laughing)
10:00
And if y'all saw me on "Dancing With The Stars"
10:02
you know I can't dance.
10:04
(guests laughing)
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I tried, but I'm no dancer.
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So I decided if I have talent, it was in my kitchen
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because I had been on a 20-year ride with agoraphobia.
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I was 19 when my father died.
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It was just my...
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You know, as long as he was alive, I was safe.
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And I didn't know what was wrong with me, what I had.
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But I later discovered, through a TV show, what I had,
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and I diagnosed myself
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as a sometimes functioning agoraphobic.
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That's terrible. That's terrible.
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And you don't meet agoraphobics. They're at home.
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They're home where it's safe.
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You know, they're not out shopping and rambling the streets.
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No, no, no. We're home.
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And so my kitchen was my sanctuary.
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That was where I felt safe.
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I could get in there
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and not think about how frightened I was.
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And unfortunately, four years later,
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my mother and my best friend passed away.
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And my daddy was 40 and my mother was 44.
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So all of my security went out the door.
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I had a 16-year-old brother that I had to finish raising
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and two children under three and an alcoholic husband.
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So it was something else.
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And so my husband moved us to Savannah in 1987,
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and I was devastated.
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I said, I'll never get to be able to go home
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and see my friends and what little bit of family
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I had left there.
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And so I started dreaming about a way
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that I could take care of my children and myself,
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and make a house payment and buy groceries.
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So, I decided since I could cook,
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I would start this little business,
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and I named her "The Bag Lady."
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And I had these two beautiful, fine, Christian sons
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that are just precious.
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And so I decided that I would pimp them out.
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(guests laughing)
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To sell my food.
12:37
(guests laughing)
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And it worked. It worked.
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And I'd say then,
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if I can make this, I will pass it on.
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I wanna pass it on.
13:00
I love seeing women, and men.
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(guests laughing)
13:07
It's so expected of you, men.
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I mean, it's like y'all do it naturally,
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but women...
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And you know, and I had my sons
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so when we moved downtown, I named it, "The Lady and Sons."
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And women were taken by that
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because, quite often, sons fall in their father's footsteps.
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But where do you see sons fall in ma's footsteps?
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And it was hard running a family business,
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but I made a promise that day.
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And so in 2012, I got with the lawyer in on the foundation
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and I named it after our first little, humble business,
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"Paula Deen's Bag Lady Foundation."
14:03
- "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
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♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪
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14:13
♪ Morning by morning new mercies I see ♪
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♪ All I have needed Thy hands hath provided ♪
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♪ Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me ♪
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(piano music)
14:47
14:56
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15:10
Starting the chorus again.
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15:17
15:22
♪ Morning by morning new mercies I see ♪
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♪ All I have needed Thy hands hath provided ♪
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♪ Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me ♪
15:59
You are one of the things that I think...
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- So beautiful.
16:02
(guests laughing)
16:04
- Well, I want you to know it.
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So, what will happen is, we wanna say hello
16:08
to all the people who will see this later.
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There are millions of you
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who this will go out to at some point.
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And you can support The Bag Lady Foundation
16:19
by going to the link in the comments.
16:22
We would love to have your support and reach out to us
16:25
and let us know you'd love to partner with us
16:28
in this endeavor.
16:29
There are some wonderful people on the board
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who've touched my life in such a deep way, and also yours.
16:35
And we want to do everything we can to help others
16:38
and pay it forward.
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- Pay it forward, we've got to.
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- For those who are less fortunate than us,
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I feel it's such a calling on my heart.
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And so for those of you who will watch this,
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we want to thank you for watching this.
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And it's been such an honor to interview today...
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I mean, if I die today... - Oh, Cam.
16:58
No, no, no, no.
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Do people know how wonderful you are?
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- Well. - [Guests] Yes. Yes.
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(guests cheering)
17:07
- [Cam] Well. - You're so young
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and you're so talented.
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What experience in your life
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gave you this strong foundation of faith?
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- You know, my grandmother, from the time I was so little,
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she would get down the side of the bed at night
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and pray to God out loud.
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And I remember being in this room across the hall
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and hearing her beg the Lord to protect all of us,
17:36
her grandchildren, and all of that.
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And so from such a young age,
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I was impacted by that.
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And her faith was so strong.
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But you know, for my life has been a little different.
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And we're not perfect,
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but the one thing I believe in,
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I wake up every day and choose joy.
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I choose joy. - That's right.
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- And I will tell you that God has not failed me once.
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When there were people who said,
18:03
"You'll never make it," it came through a flying...
18:06
The doors open. - Yeah.
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- The doors open.
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And that, the impact of my grandparents,
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and knowing that they really believed
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what they prayed at night, they did it,
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they executed it.
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It's carried me all this way.
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- Oh, I love that.
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- We have the opportunity to touch people and change.
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If we can just make
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the tiny difference in somebody's life...
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- Through your music. That's powerful.
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(piano music)
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- It's gonna be all right.
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(Paula laughing)
18:37
- It's gonna be all right.
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♪ When peace, like a river, attendeth my way ♪
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♪ When sorry, like sea billows roll ♪
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♪ Whatever my lot, Thou hath taught me to say ♪
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♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪
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♪ It is well ♪
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♪ It is well ♪
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♪ With my soul ♪
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♪ With my soul ♪
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♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪
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♪ And Lord haste the day ♪
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♪ When my faith shall be sight ♪
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♪ The clouds be rolled back as a scroll ♪
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♪ The trump shall resound ♪
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♪ And the Lord shall descend ♪
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♪ Even so it is well with my soul ♪
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♪ It is well, it is well ♪
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♪ With my soul, with my soul ♪
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♪ It is well ♪
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♪ It is well with my soul ♪
21:10
(piano music)
21:16
Thank you all so much. (guests applauding)
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(guests laughing)
21:26
(people singing)
21:31
(piano music)
21:36
(guests applauding)
21:39
- I hope y'all enjoyed all the clips
21:41
that we shared with y'all.
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And so many of y'all have come
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to Bag Lady events over the years,
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so hopefully, the next one that we have,
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you can check my calendar,
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and maybe it'll work out where you can come,
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'cause we have a good time
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and we're doing good work for good women.
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Hey, y'all, it's Paula Deen.
22:10
Now, if you enjoyed this video, be sure to like it
22:13
and click the subscribe button as well as the notification
22:17
bell to be alerted when I post a video.
22:21
Love and Best Dishes Y'all.

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Love & Best Dishes: 2026 Texas Bag Lady Foundation Fundraiser

Paula Deen