Marty was interviewed by Andree Hurst in August 2024. In 1955, when he was five years old, he moved with his family to a home with a pear orchard in Lafayette. His memories of growing up here include exploring a large culvert that went under the newly-opened Highway 24 and being called home to dinner […]
Oral History: Kim Conti Clutts — August 7, 2024
Kim Conti Clutts was interviewed by Andree Hurst on August 7, 2024. She was born in 1959, the same year in which her parents moved into a brand new home in Lafayette and her father bought the Butler-Conti Dodge Dealership, which he operated for the next 52 years. She has great memories of going through […]
Oral History: John D. (Johnny) Marchant — March 23, 2025
John D. (Johnny) Marchant was interviewed by Annie Lupardus on March 23, 2025. He is one of two adopted sons of Jack and Esther Marchant. His brother Donny was three months older, and the two of them shared many experiences together as they grew up and attended local schools. Their family first lived in a […]
Oral History: Maeve Pessis — July 22, 2009
Summary: Maeve Pessis was interviewed by Mary McCosker on July 22, 2009. Through her work with Friends of the Lafayette Library and the Lafayette Vision Committee. Maeve was one of the members of the community who knew the difference a new library could make. She describes the collaborative effort, involving a large and diverse group […]
Oral History: Gwen Lennox — August 8th, 2009
Summary: Gwen Lennox was interviewed by Barbara Baratta on August 4, 2009. Gwen remembered being a voracious reader while she was growing up in Selma, a small farming community in the central valley. Her parents had been active in their community, and when Gwen moved to Lafayette in 1993 she soon became an early and […]
Oral History: Lois Laine — June 12th, 2009
Summary: Lois Laine was President of the Friends of the Lafayette Library in the late 1980s. She became part of the Lafayette Vision Committee, a diverse group of individuals which was assembled by Anne Grodin to anticipate the growing city’s future needs. In this interview, Lois Laine describes how the committee proceeded to recognize that […]
Oral History: Alice Johnson — August 7th, 2008
Summary: Alice Johnson was interviewed by Georgi McLain in 2008. Alice moved to Lafayette in 1959 and almost immediately she began looking for ways to make a contribution to the city’s cultural organizations and to local government. She was active as a member of the Walkways and Trails Commission and the local chapters of the […]
Oral History: Mary McCosker — June 24th, 2009
Summary: Mary McCosker, a Lafayette native, was interviewed by Georgi McLain on June 24, 2009. She had been involved with the project to build the new Lafayette Library and Learning Center–which was on track to open 5 months later–for many years at that point. She recalls in this interview that Lafayette’s out-dated current library had […]
Oral History: Robin Holt — May 19th, 2008
Summary: Robin Holt was interviewed by Pat Riegg on May 19, 2008. She and her husband, a Navy officer based in Alameda, moved to Lafayette from Hawaii in 1975. Long a member of the Friends of the Lafayette Library, she became involved with the project to develop a new library after attending a presentation by […]
Oral History: Susan Weaver — November 25th, 2008
Summary: Susan Weaver was interviewed on November 25, 2008, by Mary McCosker. As a professional librarian working for the country, she was the last manager of the “old library,” which opened in 1962, and the first at the new (2009) library. Having lost her hearing at age 2, Susan showed an interest throughout her career […]
