“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
• FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES, THE FORD NAME IS NO LONGER A PART OF THE TRACY BUSINESS SCENE. An open house in December of this year marked the end of a business started in 1937 by Vince Ford. Son, Jim Ford, joined the business in 1947, and carried on after Vince Ford’s death in 1960. Jim Ford died in 1991.
Dar Ford, Jim’s widow, decided lo close the business because Lorraine Radke, who has worked at the Ford office since 1958, wants to retire. Despite blizzard conditions, 47 guests showed up for an open house. Ford was pleased.
“The weather could not have been much worse but people were good enough to brave the weather and come out,” she told.
The Ford office originally handled insurance, later expanding to include real estate sales. Several years ago, the insurance agency was sold off and the Ford Agency became Ford Real Estate.
Dar Ford worked at the Ford office for several years after marrying Jim.
“As our family came along, Jim wanted me to stay home with our five children. That was fine with me. I enjoyed being home and still love housework,” she added.
She remembers her husband talking about the changes over the years. During the early ‘60s, he watched the price of land steadily come up.
“Jim’s business covered a large area. He watched the land prices begin to rise down in Iowa. This quickly filtered up to Fulda and then into the Westbrook area,” she reflected.
His work was not a 9 to 5 job. “He worked nights and he worked weekends. Sometimes I thought it was just too much, but this was the way it was. One comment I remember him making shortly before he died was how much more complicated buying and selling property had become,” she added.
• Last week’s answer: Longtime Red Rooster owners Carolyn and Don Engelkes served up their last roast beef commercial in 2003.
