Joy Stafford of Brandon has been a lover of local history all her life.
“I’m 85 years old and I began to become interested in history when my mother and stepfather moved to Virginia,” Stafford said. “The state is full of parks, museums, reenactments and libraries. Upon graduating with honors from high school, I had chosen library science as my major in college.”
Stafford graduated from the University of Kentucky and met her husband, Doug, in 1961 and earned her master’s degree that same year.
“Doug and I married in September of 1962, and I became a full-time wife and mother to our three children until our church, First Methodist Church of Brandon, began a preschool. I was a part-time teacher at the church for eight years,” said Stafford.
Fast-forward to 1989, when Stafford was working as a media specialist at McLane Junior High School. The school celebrated its 75th anniversary, and Stafford was on the committee to create a small book detailing the school’s history.
“Copies of the book were made for and presented to all of the past and present principals of the school,” Stafford said. “I wanted to make recordings of interviews with some of the elders of our community because they were quickly passing away. I got our students involved with this project so they could write it and make a video of the conversations.”
The advanced placement students accepted Stafford’s challenge to create this video.
“The students’ condensed versions of the interviews were put into the history of Brandon School,” Stafford said.
Over the years, Stafford has self-published books on local history that have made it all the way to the national library in Washington, D.C. This past May, Stafford showed some of the historic videos she has made to the local historic preservation society, Preserve Brandon.
“I was so excited when the Preserve Brandon committee asked me to plan and deliver a program about the history of Brandon School,” Stafford said. “I immediately called my friend and original chairperson in charge of the 1989 committee. Jackie Williams was excited and as willing as I was to do the presentation.”
The video was a hit with the guests at the Preserve Brandon event.
“Jackie and I created a new, longer edition of the history video,” Stafford said. “I intend to have this copy of the video be made to keep in the new Brandon Library in their Brandon History Collection.”
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