Ozark Profile : Passion for photography leads Tontitown native to historical preservation
Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008
Mary Frances Maestri Vaughan loves her Italian heritage, and she loves to stay busy. Lucky for her, she’s managed to stay busy by learning about her hometown’s roots, with a few extra tasks on the side.
Maestri Vaughan, a Springdale resident by address but a Tontitown resident by birth, and by heart, is one of the founding board members of the Tontitown Historical Museum as well as an accomplished photographer.
“ I feel like everyone has something to offer and that we need to give back to our community in whatever way we can with the gifts that we’ve been given, ’ Maestri Vaughan said.
Her journey began in the little grape-centered town between Siloam Springs and Springdale.
“ It was my home until I married Bruce (Vaughan ) in 1947, ” she said
She said Tontitown was a different place then, a “ self-contained town. ” It had a post office and a general store on its main street corners, and the old St. Joseph’s Catholic Church building was still being used. Her house was right next to her father’s store.
She went to school at a Catholic boarding school in Tulsa, Okla., but spent summers at home. Maestri Vaughan said that during her childhood, life in Tontitown only gave her a glimpse of the what she later found out to be a much bigger world. She said trips to the creek on a truck that was so full of people its running boards and headlights were used as seats and roller skating on the sidewalk in front of the priest’s and nun’s parishes kept her pretty occupied growing up.
“ Before, everything began and ended in Tontitown. I didn’t know how big the world was, ” she said.
Eventually Maestri Vaughan was old enough to work, so she took a job at a coffee shop on Emma Avenue in Springdale. That’s where she met her husband.
“ He would come in for coffee several times a day, ” she said with a reminiscent smile.
Bruce Vaughan, who owned a TV and radio shop down the street from where she worked, would strike up conversations with the girl who would later become his wife. She said that during Vaughan’s frequent visits, discussions about dating never came up, but eventually a new job offer from a local bank and another offer to move with a friend to California came up for Maestri Vaughan.
“ One day Bruce finally brought me a dozen roses, a fountain pen and a note that said ‘ Take the bank job, ’” she said.
The two were eventually married, and Maestri Vaughan found herself working for her husband at his store and moving into the house she’s now lived in for more than 50 years.
Her husband introduced her to photography, and Maestri Vaughan fell in love again.
She started her own photography studio in 1974 and moved into one of her husband’s extra buildings.
“ He said I could move in there as long as I didn’t take outside customers, ” she said. “ That lasted for about two weeks. ”
Her first job was a wedding, and Maestri Vaughan hasn’t stopped hitting the shutter since.
“ I did a funeral once, ” she said. “ The woman who’s husband had passed wanted candid shots. ”
The funeral was an odd request Maestri Vaughan admitted, and she spent a lot of time hiding in the shadows trying not to be seen. Once the event was over, she thought she wouldn’t have to deal with it again.
“ Then the woman came to my studio and balled me up and down because his color wasn’t good (in the photos ), ” she said.
Vaughan started pushing Maestri Vaughan, a selfadmitted “ shy girl, ” to come out of her shell more. She said that when she was first married, she wouldn’t even tell people her name.
“ She had a good-sized inferiority complex, ” Vaughan said.
He would find little ways to help her break out of her shy mode. He even convinced her to put together a presentation for the Photog raphy Society of America’s meeting in Oklahoma City.
Vaughan even convinced his wife to join the Parent / Teacher Association.
“ I started as a classroom mother and worked my way all the way up to president, ” Maestri Vaughan said.
While working, Maestri Vaughan managed to raise three kids, Michael, Pat and Melissa.
In 1985 Vaughan told his wife he was ready to retire.
“ I wasn’t ready, ” Maestri Vaughan said. “ We had to move the studio home. ”
Eventually she closed her studio business, choosing only to keep photography as a hobby. Maestri Vaughan said she had also been dabbling in a little historical research at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History. That’s when she started learning about her town’s heritage.
“ Ever since it’s been a museum, I’ve been involved with Shiloh Museum, ” she said.
She and her husband worked there, and Vaughan donated antique camera collections. Maestri Vaughan said she was eventually approached by the wife of the then-mayor of Tontitown who asked her if she was interested in helping preserve some of Tontitown’s history.
“ She said if we didn’t start collecting Tontitown’s history now, it’s going to be lost, ” Maestri Vaughan said.
So Maestri Vaughan helped start the city’s first historic preservation committee. The group eventually turned into the Tontitown Historical Museum’s first board. Maestri Vaughan spent a lot of her time collecting old photographs and interviewing many of the city’s older citizens. The board has even decided to publish a book about Tontitown’s history and Maestri Vaughan gets to fly to Italy to research the town’s roots.
“ This is my last term (on the board ), ” she said. “ I’ll go out in February. ”
Even though Maestri Vaughan enjoys learning about the past, she said she’s not one to live in the past because she’s interested in so many things.
“ Her problem is she’s interested in everything, ” her husband said with a laugh.
Maestri Vaughan just smiled looking back.
“ I’ve been blessed with a wonderful life, ” she said.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
