Jul. 26—While an array of jobs have been occupied by women in Stephens County over the years, one woman has brought several significant historical items together from businesses, artists, bookkeepers, pilots, police officers and more, all in one location, in Stephens County.
For the past decade, Stephens County Historical Museum (SCHM) Executive Director Cova Willams pursued her passion for history by organizing historical artifacts at the local museum for community members to learn about.
As a lover of history, Williams said she loves the history of her family, as well as Stephens County.
"It just all worked together," she said. "I've enjoyed working here."
She thought it was great to be able to spruce up the museum and do things that needed to be done in order for the community to enjoy the historical parts of Stephens County.
Williams came to the museum as director around 10 years ago after working at the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center for 12 years.
In wanting to slow down a bit, Williams wanted to be of assistance at the museum around October 2013.
She noted one of the first things she updated was "the Derrick" at the museum and the paintings — that Mr. Halliburton commissioned in the 30s and 40s.
Williams took down the art and cleaned it, then her son, who was a third generation Halliburton, built the new wall and pulled the paintings into the museum for a better view.
She said she repositioned "the Derrick" to provide the best space for the art and the Smith-Dressler Company donated the lights for the art.
After that, she was able to bring all of the Halliburton items together.
She said she has redone many of the cases to make it more cohesive to the museum, as well as redesigned the Hall of Fame room and bring more historically significant items to the museum.
Part of the redesign included building a wall to add a research room where people could come and research boxes full of information about the old courthouse, William Duncan, banking and other subjects.
"If someone was researching, they could find what they were looking for that's archived at the museum," she said.
Williams said she wished she would have taken 'before' photos from when she first started working at the museum, where she'd be able to look back at all that's been worked on over the years, just to see how things have changed.
"My hand has been in a little bit of everything," she said.
Williams said one of her favorite parts about working at the museum is setting up the exhibits, but more than that, she said it's meeting the people who come in to look around the museum and want to learn about all the history of Stephens County, especially Duncan.