The following newspaper article ran with the picture to the right with Hazel and a few of her paintings.

The San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, California)
Sunday, June 28, 1964
page 14

Artist - for 2 years- Is Successful at 78

FONTANA- Hazel Alford decided she wanted to become an artist.
That was just two years ago. Today Mrs. Alford who is an energetic 78 years young, has completed nearly 100 paintings, taken a first prize in an open exhibition, and has sold several pieces of her work.
Mrs. Alford, a Fontana resident of two months, admits she has been compared to Grandma Moses, but says she doesn't "care for her style."
"I don't like that modern stuff, either," the almost octogenarian asserts, "I like what they're supposed to be."
Finding subjects for her paintings among her garden flowers, her neighbor's dogs, calendars, colored slides, magazines and even greeting cards,The busy artist works in one room of her trailer which she has converted to a studio.
Still life paintings, pastoral scenes and seascapes are among the many oil paintings which decorate the walls of her residence, which is located in the Bird of Paradise Trailer Park on Marygold Avenue.
Mrs. Alford says she had always wanted to paint, but had never given it any serious thought until two years ago. She and her husband, Marcus A. Alford, had just moved to Tujunga from North Hollywood, Mrs. Alford, signed up for them, becoming a pupil of Elsie Cassidy in Glendale.
"I was scared to death," she says of her first attempt, "But when people kept saying I must have painted before I decided to go on with it."
After an interruption when her teacher was in an accident, Mrs. Alford resumed her studies with Katherine Glandville, and joined a Senior Citizens Art Club in Sunland.
One of her paintings done during this period was entered in an open exhibit at a gallery on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, and received a blue ribbon.
The Alfords moved to Fontana in April to be near Alford's daughter, Mrs. Lavina C. Jones, who lives in the trailer adjacent to them. Two of Mrs. Alford's paintings are hung in her stepdaughter's trailer.
Although Mrs. Alford has dabbled in other art forms, including finger painting --"It's too messy--" she prefers to work with oils. Occasionally she tries her hand at ceramics or making lampshades.
To date Mrs. Alford has sold eight of her paintings. She frames all her canvases herself and includes the frame when she makes a sale. The most recent purchase of one of her works was by Mrs. Evelyn Broiles of San Bernardino who bought the seascape shown in the accompanying photo.
Mrs. Alford plans to affiliate herself with local art groups and hopes to exhibit some of her work in exhibitions of area artists.
A native of Lincoln, Neb., Mrs. Alford has been a California resident for 41 years.