Latest news with #Duesenberg
American Press
20 hours ago
- General
- American Press
Ralph Luke Sonnier
Ralph Luke Sonnier, 86, died at 4:39 p.m., June 23, 2025, at Harbor Hospice in Lake Charles. He was known as Pie, his nickname. Pie was a lifelong resident of Sulphur, born on Dec. 16, 1938, at Sulphur Mines. He was a 1957 graduate of Sulphur High School and attended McNeese State College before joining the Army. After serving in the US Army for three years in Germany, he worked in the IBEW apprentice program in Port Arthur, Texas. After becoming a journeyman lineman, he followed the electrical high line work for nine years. During this time, he married Josephine 'Joey' Carol Caruthers in Sulphur on July 27, 1968. In 1973, after the birth of their son, Paul, he started working at Century Steps, which later became Century Group, from where he retired with 29 years of service as fabrication supervisor. He enjoyed working in his woodworking shop building handcrafted cars, trucks, and toys, traveling, and entertaining friends on his screened porch. Pie was a member of Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic Church. For many years he was a 'garden angel' every Tuesday and an adorer every Monday at Prompt Succor Church. He was a 3rd Degree Member of the Knights of Columbus Sulphur Council #3015 and was an active member of the Lake Charles Woodworkers Club. In 2007, Pie won first place in the miniature replica category of the national Build-A-Gift contest sponsored by Wood Magazine. He had handcrafted a miniature replica of a 1953 Duesenberg SSJ. One exciting moment of his life was when Jay Leno from the 'Tonight Show' called to thank him for the pictures of the Duesenberg. Pie was always giving a helping hand to his neighbors. Survivors include one son, Paul Luke Sonnier and his wife, Christie Sonnier, of Dallas, Texas; one granddaughter, Sara Sonnier, J.D., of Cincinnati, Ohio; one sister, Zilda Vincent of Sulphur, and one brother, Buddy Sonnier of Carlyss. His wife, Josephine 'Joey' Sonnier; one sister, Claire Richard, and his parents, Antoine and Agnes Sonnier, preceded him in death. His funeral will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 28, 2025 in Hixson-Sulphur Memorial Funeral Home. Deacon Patrick LaPointe will officiate. Burial will be at Mimosa Pines Cemetery in Carlyss under the direction of Hixson-Sulphur Memorial Funeral Home. Visitation is at 10 a.m. Saturday morning until the time of service with rosary at 1:30 p.m. in the funeral home. Memorial donations can be made to Our Lady's Catholic School Trust Fund, 1111 Cypress Street, Sulphur, LA 70663. Words of comfort and expressions of sympathy may be shared with the family at
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Newsweek
Dacora's CEO Hopes to Revive the US's Ultra-Luxury Car Market
The modern age of electric vehicles will allow coachbuilding to make a resurgence. That high level of customization is the intended bread and butter for Dacora, a startup automaker that calls New York's Hudson Valley home. Dacora's CEO and co-founder Kristie D'Ambrosio-Correll, who will speak at Newsweek's Women's Global Impact forum on August 5, grew up "under the hood" with her father, spending "many, many hours in the garage with him." She later "fell in love" with engineering, a career path that would lead from her schooling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studying computer electrical engineering to Mirror, a startup company that created exercise equipment and was later acquired by Lululemon, as the Chief Technology Officer. "I studied AI while I was in college, and really wanted to understand how innovation could be brought to the automotive space. In that time, Tesla was just emerging, so no one was really innovating in the automotive space," D'Ambrosio-Correll told Newsweek. Despite initially going into the consumer electronics space instead of the automotive industry, she never lost her love of cars. That love bonded her with her husband, Eric, who felt similarly, having grown up in a family that restored classic vehicles. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Dacora Instead of going into the automotive space straight out of college, D'Ambrosio-Correll went to work in consumer electronics. "[I] looked around and kind of saw that consumer electronics was where everything was happening at that time. And so, I went into the consumer electronics space instead," she said. D'Ambrosio-Correll reminisced about a conversation she had with her father when she was a teen: "I said to him, 'What if I'm very successful and I make a lot of money? What's the best American car I can buy? Not the British version, not the Italian version... What's our version?' And we had a long conversation about Duesenberg and some older cars. But basically, he was like, 'There isn't one. There isn't an American ultra luxury vehicle." She acknowledges that the Cadillac Celestiq, which retails for $340,000 and up, is the closest the industry comes to American ultra luxury, but Cadillac isn't exclusively an ultra-luxury brand in the way Rolls-Royce is. Dacora's models are priced to start significantly higher, closer to $500,000. To get to today, D'Ambrosio-Correll and her husband, under the Dacora brand, completed two rounds of funding in 2024, and they debuted the car this year. "It's been kind of a lifetime in the making, but really a pretty short time from when we pressed go on it," she said. Dacora plans to make its vehicles in the Hudson Valley, using artisans to create a coachbuilt model. "What we really want to do is bring an ultra-luxury brand back and do it in a way that's coachbuillt, similar to the cars of the 1930s, 1920s. A lot of you ask me this: 'Why has it not been done before?' You look at a lot of American cars, and you'll see they have a similar pattern. They start high and then they go mass market. And that has worked for many of them. It hasn't worked for all of them, but it has been a strategy," she said. D'Ambrosio-Correll plans to bring vehicle making back to Upstate New York. "Historically, there's been many, many car companies from New York," she said. "I'm born and bred in New York, born and raised here. The Hudson Valley holds a lot of personal memories for me. It is where my family took countless vacations and holidays when I was a kid." Her technology industry experience has made the Dacora sedan a human-centric, tech-forward vehicle. "I've worked in very, very large companies, and I worked at startups. The first thing I took away is my experience from Mirror was building immersive technology and really thinking 'human first.' Immersive experiences is something we were known for, and how to do that in a way that didn't feel like technology was breathing down your throat, but rather that it was about human connection," she said. The CEO calls the relationship between humans and technology "sacred" and that technology should "not disrupt someone's experience" but rather complement it. "This car is very intimate, and it'll be part of your daily experiences," she said. Dacora's new car sits in the sunshine, parked. Dacora's new car sits in the sunshine, parked. Dacora The personal nature of a Dacora vehicle ownership experience leans on its coachbuilt nature and goes beyond the initial purchase, D'Ambrosio-Correll explained. "This is a relationship not only between us and the client, but also between the client, and their vehicle over time, and so that means being able to upgrade your upholstery, being able to swap out your interior," she said. A variety of configurations are available – three, four, five or six seats – and clients can specify the type of console package they want with options like an espresso machine, bookshelf and bonsai garden on the menu. "We have had many, many requests at this point for unique things... Let's say, on the weekends, this person has a family, and they spend time with them, and maybe they want to drive out to their Hamptons home, or they want to take a road trip and visit family. They can do so by swapping out that rear seat, and put in a bench seat with three so you can fit your three kids. "We are the only direct-to-consumer brand in this price point. And so we really are able to have that constant conversation and communication with the client to meet their needs," she said.
