This week in West Orange County history

Do you recognize these names, faces and places from West Orange County's past?

By Amy Quesinberry
| 5:09 p.m. December 18, 2019

West Orange Times & Observer
Neighborhood

OLD TIMES

75 years ago

The Rotary Club was given a real treat at its luncheon meeting at the Winter Garden Café when Claire Stanford presented the Lakeview High School Glee Club in a musical program that was opened with a solo “Holy Night” by Frances Stulck.

50 years ago

The West Orange Junior Service League debutantes presented at the Bay Hill Country Club were Nanette Ball, Jacque Dennis, Charlotte Hoequist, Carol Anne Sutton, Donna Fain, Elizabeth Heidt, Janet Teal, Katherine Theisen, Marcia Walker, Elizabeth Weede and Gloria Susan Youngblood.

40 years ago

Joe and Kathy Williams of Tildenville are going all out this Christmas in decorating their home on Oakland Avenue, formerly occupied by the Joe Burch family. Passersby are invited to stop their cars and bring their youngsters up on the porch to view the many sights up close.

30 years ago

When Coach Ron Lopsonzski of Winter Garden went to Shands Hospital in Gainesville, he was expecting to have an angioplasty, not heart- transplant surgery. He was on the transplant list last spring when the community had several fundraisers for him, including lap runs, a turkey shoot and a dance.

10 years ago

The city of Ocoee added three more intersections to its list of traffic signals with red-light cameras: Blackwood Avenue at West Colonial Drive, Clarke Road at White Road and Clarke at A.D. Mims Road.

Winter Garden city officials got their first look at plans for a new park in the downtown area. Renderings were unveiled for a 4,000-square-foot pavilion that will be the centerpiece of the space. The Winter Garden Farmers Market and other events will be held there.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

The Winter Garden Times

Dec. 18, 1980

If you were looking for a fresh-cut Christmas tree in 1980, the West Orange Kiwanis Club was ready to sell you one at the tree lot it operated near the Burger King on Highway 50 in Winter Garden. If your favorite trees were scotch pine, white pine, fraser fir or noble fir, you were in luck because the Kiwanians sold all four.

The proceeds from the tree sale benefited Kiwanis charities.

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

Military personnel enjoy Christmas at the McRae house located on West Plant Street. C.O. and Frances McRae are shown with their daughter, Mary Grace, and six soldiers they hosted for a Christmas dinner during World War II. The men were stationed at the Camp Kent Signal Corps base located on the old West Orange Country Club property along Avalon Road in Tildenville — now the city of Winter Garden's Tucker Ranch Recreational Park and Nature Preserve.

author

Amy Quesinberry

Community Editor Amy Quesinberry was born at the old West Orange Memorial Hospital and raised in Winter Garden. Aside from earning her journalism degree from the University of Georgia, she hasn’t strayed too far from her hometown and her three-mile bubble. She grew up reading The Winter Garden Times and knew in the eighth grade she wanted to write for her community newspaper. She has been part of the writing and editing team since 1990.