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Resident Treasures Early Memories Of Brandon

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2007

BRANDON - Winifred and Walter J. Dean married in 1944 and soon after bought a lot in Brandon on which to build their home and raise a family. The parcel, a block north of Brandon Boulevard at Ridgewood Avenue and Morgan Street, cost $125.

The couple spent 40 years in their Brandon home. They raised two children, a son and a daughter. For fun, they went to the old movie theater on Robertson Street or bowling at Oakfield Lanes. They often ate supper at Harris's Restaurant on Brandon Boulevard, a two-lane dirt road at the time.

In 1953, Winifred Dean, a 1944 graduate of Brandon High School, went to work for Brandon's first physician, V. R. Hunter. She recalled Hunter went to "the big city" - Tampa - to borrow money to build an office, but he was refused a loan.

"The bank told him 'Why do you want to build an office in Brandon? It won't amount to anything,'" Dean said.

The doctor converted an old house at Brandon Boulevard and Parsons Avenue into an office.

"We took X-rays and developed them in the bathtub," Dean said.

She was hired as a receptionist, but Hunter taught Dean to give injections, read specimens and take X-rays.

She loved the work so much she decided to go to nursing school in Tampa. Nursing students at the time were made to serve at a quarantined "TB hospital" in Tampa, Dean said, where as many as 100 patients at a time were treated for tuberculosis.

"We had to wear a mask and wash their beds, and we felt very contaminated," she said. "When I would get home I'd strip my clothes off and throw them in the yard until I could wash them."

Dean enjoys sharing her memories at Hawthorne Estates in the Hawthorne Village Retirement Community.

"There are about 80 people who live here, and all of them are so nice and helpful and friendly," she said.

Laura Frazier

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