Vintage Sweetex Crate Label 🍊 Donna, TX, World's Sweetest Cowgirl!

Who Packed Sweetex Texas Citrus? 🤠 Sweetex "World's Sweetest!" Texas Citrus Label, Chas. A. Rogers & Sons, Donna, Texas

Size: 6 3/4" x 6 3/4" ~ Little to no wear.

Such an amazing vintage advertisement featuring the world's sweetest cowgirl! A smiling blonde cowgirl in a pale green hat, neckerchief and fringed gloves holds up a card that says it all: World's Sweetest! This is a vintage Sweetex Texas citrus fruit label, sent out by the Rogers family's citrus house in Donna, Texas, and never pasted on a box. This is the version of this label with the "World's Sweetest" moniker instead of "Fresh." Such a beautiful label, perfect for country decor or collections! My pictures seriously don't do it justice.

🔍 What's on it

The cowgirl on a deep blue ground, holding up a yellow card reading World's Sweetest!, with Sweetex in big red letters across the lower half. Below, TEXAS CITRUS FRUIT, DISTRIBUTED BY CHAS. A. ROGERS & SONS, INC., DONNA, TEXAS 78537 and PRODUCE OF U.S.A.

That ZIP code tells you something: ZIP codes didn't exist until July 1, 1963, so this printing of the label is from 1963 or later, when the Rio Grande Valley was still putting paper labels on its citrus.

🍊 Sweetex and the Rogers family

The Sweetex name goes back a long way. It was registered as a trademark for fresh citrus fruits in 1931, with a first use of August 11, 1930, first by Weslaco Farmers, Inc., and later it passed to the Rogers company in Donna, which kept it renewed into the 1990s. As the Rogers family's own story is told, Charles A. Rogers started the business in Chicago in 1924, moved it to south Texas in 1940, and the third generation of the family was still running it in the 2010s.

Donna itself is a Rio Grande Valley town founded in 1904 when the railroad arrived, and named for Donna Fletcher, who was postmistress when the post office opened in 1908. That same year Donna was the Texas station that shipped the most produce, and it stayed a citrus and vegetable growing center for decades.

🏡 Display

Imagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room! That cowgirl looks great framed in a kitchen, a ranch house or a girl's room, and it's a perfect gift for a cowgirl, a Texan, or anybody from Donna, Weslaco and the Rio Grande Valley.

Crate labels are a reminder of a bygone era, and the lithography on them is unparalleled even to this day, in my opinion. Museums and art institutes have galleries dedicated to them, and more and more collectors are seeking them out to preserve their history. Once the limited supply for sale is gone and on display with collectors or in galleries, they will be very difficult to acquire.