Dade County History Book

Left to right - Bill Williams, Bianca Lynn Williams, Jeffrey Alan Williams, Brian Stuart Ledford, Angella Michelle Ledford, Blenda Moore Ledford, and Denver Leon Ledford. Photo was taken in May 1978 at the Kilauea Volcano on the big island of Hawaii.

Front row, left to right - Angella Michelle Ledford and Brian Stuart Ledford; back row, left to right - Blenda Moore Ledford and Denver Leon (Butch) Ledford. Photo was taken in 1995.

Blenda Fay Moore Ledford

Blenda Fay Moore was born February 4, 1945, in the New Salem community on Lookout Mountain.  She was the third of three children born to Harold Cecil (Prag) Moore and Margaret Inez Gray Moore.

She attended school at New Salem Elementary and Dade County High School, from which she graduated in 1963.  She graduated from McKenzie Business College in Chattanooga in 1964.  She is attending college at Chattanooga State Technical Community College, working toward a degree in business administration.  She attended church at the New Salem United Methodist Church.

On July 3, 1964, she married Denver Leon (Butch) Ledford, the son of Camilla and Leander Ledfrod of Lake City, Tennessee.  Blenda and Denver are the parents of Angel la Michelle Ledford of Chattanooga, Tennessee, born July 26, 1965; Katrina Dawn Ledford (who was stillborn on March 3, 1967); and Brian Stuart Ledford of Midway City, California, born July 17, 1968.

Blenda and Denver have lived in New Salem, Decatur, Rossville, Smyrna, and Trenton, Georgia.  In 1975, Denver accepted a job at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, Tennessee.  They moved to Decatur, Tennessee, and bought a small farm.  In 1991, they bought and began renovation of a home on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  In 1992, they moved into the home even though the renovation was still in progress.  In 1996, the renovation is still in progress.

Blenda has been employed by several companies over the years, but has been with the Tennessee Valley Authority at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant and in Chattanooga, Tennessee, since 1984.  Denver was a crane operator with the Operating Engineers Union from 1967 until 1987.  Denver now works with the Chattanooga Public School System.

Their daughter, Michelle, attended Middle Tennessee State University until the excitement of emergency medicine caught her attention.  She is currently a paramedic in Hamilton County, Tennessee.  She and Denver are in the final stages of renovating a beautiful but rundown old house in East Chattanooga.  The results are astounding, and her abilities in precision v renovation may suggest a career change or at least a worthwhile hobby.

Their son, Brian, joined the Navy after graduation from Meigs County High School in Decatur, Tennessee.  He served aboard a nuclear submarine based in California.  He remained in California after his discharge from the Navy.  Brian worked in marketing for a manufacturer of contact lenses in Huntington Beach, California.  Brian is currently a sales representative for a hardware distributor.  He is engaged to be married on November 16, 1996, to Andrea Plechner in Midway City, California.

Written by Alice Williams Clarkston, GA 30021