Someone pulled and pulled, but had no luck.

For Elaine Birkhead, her Winnetka Heights area home has a deep history and some very memorable events for her family. Now 81, Birkhead’s parents originally bought the home when she was only 4 years old. She and her first husband were later married in the living room of the home before starting their own family. In the 1950s, her father began renting out the Oak Cliff home and eventually rented it to Birkhead and her husband for $60 a month.

After her father passed away, Birkhead inherited the house and took care of her mother there in her later years. Birkhead has been living in the home since 1956, and she and her husband raised three daughters and a son.

Among her many memories of the house on Edgefield is a break-in in 1997, she recalls, in which her husband confronted the burglar and grabbed his gun. The pin in the revolver came out and bullets flew across the room. He wrestled the burglar to the ground before the gun-wielding crook was able to flee the house. After her husband’s death several years ago, she remarried and still lives in the same house.