Winters remembers when the mall was originally built, the fight to save the trees on the property and numerous events that took place long before. Living mostly in Sunnyvale since 1948, she has amassed a huge knowledge bank of Sunnyvale events, one she uses extensively as a 25-year volunteer at the museum staffed by the Sunnyvale Historical Society.

"Her memory cells should be patented. Not only does she remember Sunnyvale history, but she remembers what we have to prove it and what drawer of what file cabinet it's in," says Laura Babcock, chairwoman of the Heritage Park Museum project. "I could never do this project without constantly relying on her."

Winters credits her insatiable curiosity with filling in the gaps of her Sunnyvale knowledge—much of the history she can describe at the drop of a hat occurred before she was born. "We have a lot of reading material. This is a research library right here," she explains. She also takes classes at the California History Center at De Anza College, which have a tightly local focus. Her work at the museum ranges from archiving photos and newspapers to setting up exhibits, giving her plenty of opportunities to absorb facts.

And while Winters' degree is in medical technology due to a childhood interest in chemistry, her late husband, Howard, was a history major as well as a Sunnyvale native. At night, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service at San Francisco International Airport, sorting mail going to foreign destinations. But by day, he would volunteer at the museum—and Winters tagged along.

She came to Sunnyvale when she was 8 years old.

She was born in Stockton, where her parents owned a cafe, but the entire family was displaced during World War II when they were forced to relocate to a Japanese internment camp in Rohwer, Ark. "We were only there for six months," Winters says. "I don't remember anything about it."

After being released, Winters' family was prohibited from returning to the West Coast, but her father joined the Army, which allowed his family to follow him to his post in Pittsburg. They settled in Sunnyvale in 1948.

Winters attended McKinley Grammar School, Benner Junior High and Sunnyvale High School, and began storing Sunnyvale events in her mind's extensive memory bank.

She remembers the era when a late prune harvest would push the start of the school year back a week. Winters also recalls a tornado that tore up the old train station in the early 1950s and caused $1.5 million worth of damage. "It happened at 8:30 in the morning," Winters says, "and I was told that I had to go to school!"

Winters left Sunnyvale for two years to study at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and later worked as a medical technician in Yakima, Wash., but subsequently returned to her hometown.

In 1978, she married Howard Winters, whose mother's uncle served as a superintendent at Libby's Cannery in the 1920s. "I went to school with his brother and sister, and we lived in the same neighborhood," she says. "I now live a half block from where my husband grew up."

Another of Winters' interests was stimulated by her mother-in-law, who worked at Moffett Field when the prototype airborne aircraft carrier U.S.S. Mason, which was stationed there, crashed in the 1930s. Winters now collects stamps depicting the ship. "There are 1,600 of them out there, and I've got 600 of them," she says. "I know a local dealer who will call me when he gets new ones in, to check if I have them already."

She and Howard took their mutual interest in history to a number of odd locations—they enjoyed chasing solar eclipses across the state. They also observed Halley's comet from Machu Picchu, the Galápagos Islands and Death Valley, where they were snowed in.

Her husband passed away in 1997, but Winters remains in their home on Evelyn Avenue. Every Tuesday, she heads to the museum, sometimes bringing along her own collection of antique orange juicers and butter churns for programs the museum hosts for local elementary school children, demonstrating a day in the life of a Sunnyvalian around the turn of the 20th century.

Winters recently stepped down as the museum's administrative assistant, but is staying on as a docent. "I'll be here as long as the interest is there," she says.