Natalie's Orchid Island Juice Company

On a crisp winter day in 1989, Marygrace Sexton pulled her baby daughter, Natalie, in a red wagon through the orange groves, posing the child for a picture that became the label for Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company. The groves surrounding them were Vero’s Sexton Groves, trees heavy with Indian River fruit. They called the juice Orchid Island because of the orchid color on the packaging – something different from the traditional bright orange and green orange juice packages. Creating a product that used the world’s best fruit to produce the best fresh-squeezed juice had been on Bobby Sexton’s want-to-do list for years. Sexton, a fifth-generation citrus man and grandson of citrus pioneer and legendary developer Waldo Sexton, had graduated from the University of Florida and was busy running the family’s packinghouse. His bride, Marygrace, was determined to take his idea to fruition- so the planning began. Bobby knew the citrus industry inside and out and Marygrace was a perfectionist with an intense business background.