My memories of the 46 years at The Times continue this week with a story in a book by a young woman named Saralee Rosenberg that created a renewed interest in the 10-year-old community.

When Fountain Hills was

originally planned, it was designed to be a complete community for residents of all ages. Its anticipated population at buildout was intended to be 78,000 residents.

But the demographics of the community’s population in the early years was dominated by senior citizens. Most of the community’s early residents came here from the Midwest because that is where the developer sold most of the property due to their “fly free to see before you buy” incentive.

Many did not relocate here until they reached retirement age, or they were already retired when they first acquired their lot.

Those demographics statistics began to change dramatically in the late 1980s when the community’s makeup became more appealing to families.

On April 29, 1993, the Oprah Winfrey show did a feature based on a book that had been published called “50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family.” Fountain Hills was included and the show’s staff selected the community to be one of four to be showcased on the program.

Author Saralee Rosenberg appeared on the telecast and spoke about the attractiveness of the community as an environment for raising children. The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce was contacted for information and any film that depicted the community. Coincidently, it was in the process of shooting new promotional footage on the community. Copies were sent to the Winfrey show producers.

Within 15 minutes of the presentation on the Winfrey show, the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce office was inundated with phone calls, as were the offices of the Fountain Hills School District and The Times, the town newspaper.

With the response her office received, Chamber Manager Lynn Hess said, “I don’t know what a one-minute commercial costs on national television these days, but I do know that we got at least that much publicity and it didn’t cost us anything except some postage.”

Being listed in that book was only the beginning of the accolades that would be bestowed on the community.

That tradition was carried on in 1997, when Parenting magazine named Fountain Hills as one of 10 “great” places to raise families from throughout the United States in a special 10th anniversary issue it published.

Then in 1999, a Valley of the Sun poll conducted by Phoenix CBS television affiliate KPHO Channel 5, showed that Fountain Hills is one of the more desirable places to live in the Phoenix metro area.

Another recent accolade for the town came in 2006 when Phoenix Magazine named it as the best place to live in the Phoenix metropolitan area. In early 2009, Business Week listed Fountain Hills as the “best affordable suburb” in Arizona.

MacPherson

Earl MacPherson was an artist who lived in Fountain Hills during the winter months in the 1970s. He gained international fame for his calendars for Lucky Strike cigarettes during World War II.

The calendars contained illustrations of shapely, young, scantilly-clad women. They were popular with the troops overseas.

After moving to Fountain Hills, he began painting landscapes depicting imaginary historical scenes with the area mountains as a backdrop.

The L. Alan Cruikshank River of Time Museum owns a collection of these paintings. They were donated by Lorne Pratt, an executive of the original developer of Fountain Hills.

MacPherson was the featured artist in the first Fountain Festival of Arts and Crafts in 1974.