PORT BYRON - In many ways a village such as Port Byron is the sum of not only the people that inhabit it today, but the people that created its history.

One of the goals of the Lock 52 Historical Society of Port Byron is to preserve the memories and stories associated with the people that formed Port Byron.

On Wednesday evening, Richard Martens, a life-long Port Byron resident spoke about just such a person.

Though he was only 9 or 10 when he met her, Martens said that Inez Shotz was a person who made a lasting impression on his life.

Shotz, who was referred to as the Hedda Hopper (a famous gossip columnist) of Port Byron, worked for many years as a telephone operator and also wrote a column for the Port Byron Chronicle.

“She was a good friend of my grandmother,” Martens said. “And she became a really good friend to me all of my life.”

Martens said Shotz lived on Main Street where Savannah Bank is presently located.

Her work as an operator put Shotz in a unique position.

“She was the kind of person that always wanted to know about everything that was going on in town,” Martens said. “When she was working at the phone company, they had those big open boxes and when she was connecting calls she could hear a lot about what was going on with everybody. She would hear things like the mill owner arguing about feed and things like that.”

Shotz never married, but along with her work at the telephone company and the Chronicle, she also took in borders, adding to her active social life.

It is characters such as Shotz that the historical society strives to preserve.

“We try to do things like this that keep those memories alive,”said Chick Walker, president of the historical society. “Things like this really get people talking and we love to get people talking and one person will say something and it will spark another memory and it is interesting to hear these stories and at the same time we learn.”

Mellony Carner was a next door neighbor of Shotz's as a little girl.

“She was very inquiring,” Carner said. “But she never meant any of it maliciously. She was just very interested in what was going on and she really knew about pretty much everything that was going on around here.”

Talking about Shotz brought back some fond memories.

“When the weatherman said there was going to be thunder and lightning she'd call and ask if any of us kids wanted to make 50 cents,” Carner said. “So I'd go over and sure enough the weatherman would be right and I'd sit there on her couch, falling asleep and every time the thunder would strike she'd yell and wake me up. She was very afraid of storms and hated to be alone during them.”

Shotz passed away at 84 in 1982. As she aged, she asked Martens a favor, that if anything happened to her and she couldn't hear all the news, he'd go to the cemetery and tell her what was going on.

Martens has kept the promise.

“I went up there and I told her I was going to be talking about her,” Martens said. “I think she'd appreciate it. She was a really good friend to me and I'm really happy to have the chance to talk about her.”