Stella DeSha Thomas Reading on the Thomas Front Porch at 2117 DancyT/Redell: My Grandmother, Stella Thomas loved to read magazines. She sewed beautifully, made most of the clothes she and her daughters, Joan and Barbara wore, made most of their costumes and was interested in the fashions of the day. She also loved movies and would take the girls downtown to the movie house late afternoons on those days my Grandfather had meetings after work. Then, the whole family would come home together on the streetcar. Stella Anna DeSha Thomas grew up on farms in the Hatchett Creek area of Alachua County. She and Percy were married in the Waldo Baptist Church in 1914 then came to Springfield in Jacksonville to live.