Summary: Jim Shierry was interviewed by Julie Sullivan in November, 2004. Jim learned the clothing business at an early age by working alongside his father, who was a manufacturer’s rep. After serving in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War he decided to open his own clothing store, Shierry Men’s Apparel, in La […]
Oral History: Joe Campana – November, 2004
Summary: Joe Campana was interviewed by Julie Sullivan in November, 2004. He owned and ran Campana Music for 57 years. Born in 1920, Joe served in Europe and Africa in World War II and came back to Lafayette determined to own his own business. He had learned how to play the accordion as a boy […]
Oral History: Gloria Duffy – August 1st, 2009
The two Gloria Duffy’s, mother and daughter, were interviewed by Robin Fox on August 1st, 2009. Both interviewees said that libraries were very important to them as they grew up. Each of them found that from an early age libraries had helped them to learn about the world and prepare them for world travel later […]
Oral History: Ted & Linda Murphey – November, 1976
Summary: Ted and Linda Murphey were interviewed in November, 1976. They had operated Murphey’s Valley Prescription Pharmacy on a site near the present-day Wells Fargo Bank from 1947 to 1964. Twelve years later they described for their interviewer the other principle businesses–mostly restaurants and gas stations–that existed on Mount Diablo Boulevard at that time. Oral […]
Oral History: Beverly Panfilli – October, 2004
Summary: Beverly Panfilli Littorno was interviewed by Julie Sullivan in October, 2004. Her father Adolph, who had experience working in commercial fishery, along with her mother Barbara, opened a small fish market on Old Tunnel Road in 1945. It soon became a restaurant as well, called Lafayette Seafood Grotto. This business became one of the […]
Oral History: Ken & Sue Nagel, SFO Helicopter – November, 2004
Summary: Ken Nagel and his wife Sue Nagel were interviewed by Julie Sullivan in November, 2004. Ken was an attorney, and later also a member of the Board of Directors, for SFO Helicopters. This service carried passengers from Lafayette to and from San Francisco International Airport and also six other locations around the Bay Area. […]
Oral History: Scotty Loucks — April, 2006
Summary: Scotty Loucks was interviewed by Julie Sullivan in April, 2006. Scotty was a trail breaker in her role as an independent insurance broker–she was both the first woman in the Lafayette area to own her own agency and also the first to be president of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. She came to the […]
Oral History: Stan Pedder — July, 2021
Summary: Stan Pedder was interviewed by Andree Duggan Hurst in July, 2021. He had just retired after practicing law in Lafayette for 62 years. Stan was born in 1935, 2 years before the Caldecott Tunnel opened, and he has been a close observer of developments in the life and character of the town and its […]
Oral History: Bill Eames — October, 2004
Summary: Bill Eames was interviewed by Julie Sullivan in October, 2004. Bill was only two years out of pharmacy school when he and his wife Karin opened Acalanes Pharmacy in Lafayette in 1959. There were three other pharmacies operating in town at that time, but due to Bill’s talents and hard work—he worked all the […]
Oral History: Louis M. Cosso — February 23rd, 2015
Lou Cosso moved to Lafayette from Oakland in 1951 at age 9. His uncle owned and operated a fruit farm on 55 acres in Happy Valley. Back in Oakland people considered Lafayette, with its small size and lack of commercial offerings, to be a remote outpost. As Lou described it, however, it was a perfect […]
