Anne Willis was a girl when her mother began preserving Stamford's history in the 1930s. Now, Willis is being honored for keeping the family legacy alive.
The Stamford Historical Society is holding a fun and fellowship celebration from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday to honor Willis with a lifetime achievement appreciation award.
The event will be at the Cyr Center on West Main Street in Stamford.
Event organizer Jim Kopp said, "She is a fascinating individual who really deserves this lifetime achievement recognition. I hope the whole village shows up to thank her for documenting Stamford's history all of her life."
Willis, 84, said she has been the official Stamford village historian since her mother, Daisy W. DeSilva, died in 1979.
Willis said her mother began keeping detailed records in the 1930s, when she worked for the Stamford Mirror Recorder.
"My mother wrote items for the paper but she needed more background data so she began to keep scrapbooks on everything _ people, organizations, activities _ then she typed the information up alphabetically in notebooks."
Willis said DeSilva's records expanded when she was given hundreds of old newspapers from a house that was being torn down.
"She clipped items out of the old papers, and eventually her scrapbooks spanned Stamford's history from 1890 through 1975," Willis said. "I guess you could say I segued into being the historian when she died.
"I have over 200 years of Stamford's history in my mind, and when I look at it, I see a panorama of change," she said.
With her $200 annual stipend for being historian, she said, she purchases The Daily Star so she can keep clipping bits of Stamford's history. She said she has piles of clippings organized by year that she hopes to eventually sort into categories.
"Ads are a great source of information about a community," she said. "I have ads spanning over 100 years that show what people ate, how they dressed, what they did for recreation and how technology has changed. A great deal can be learned from the ads."
Willis said she gets questions from people about genealogy.
"People are interested in their family background, but sometimes they find out more than they wanted to know," Willis said. "I had a woman call who wanted information about her uncle. The records showed he spent time in jail for stealing from her mother.
"I know where the bodies are buried," Willis said, laughing. "People think Stamford is such an idyllic place, but looking back, some terrible things have happened here."
Before settling down in Stamford to catalog the local history, Willis went seeking history and adventure around the country.
Willis said she returned to Stamford when her mother needed her and worked at the village's libraries.
"A lot of people don't know the village had two libraries," she said. "There was a little one across from where the Grand Union is. That was the first library. It was very cozy and had a potbellied stove."
Willis said she is working on collecting data about World War II.
"People nowadays have no idea what we were called on to do during the war," she said. "If we bought toothpaste, we had to turn in the old tube because it was made of metal.
"They came around and checked every home to see how many refugees each house could take in from New York City, if the city was bombed like London," Willis remembered. "And there was a plane-spotting building near the school where people took turns watching for enemy airplanes. My mother was a spotter."
Willis said she hopes to encourage the younger generations to begin collecting data, to continue saving Stamford's history.
Richard Hinman, Stamford Historical Society member, said it is amazing "how much stuff Anne Willis seems to have at her fingertips. We want to give her a little recognition and say, Hey, thanks a lot for what you have done for so long.'"
Admission is free and refreshments will be served. For reservations or more information, call 652-3344 or 652-9747.
