"Every time I would find a new one, it would be like, ‘Oh, I’d won the lottery.'"

  -- Lee Baron

Surrounded by colorful framed citrus labels that hang in her kitchen, Elizabeth Lee Barron recalls her dad coming home with sacks of the fruit throughout her childhood as she pours herself some orange juice. The Tampa native still drinks a glass every day, although at 64, she’s taken to watering it down.

Though it’s been a long time since orange groves outnumbered housing developments in Florida, the University of Tampa librarian can still remember the overwhelming smell of orange blossoms — like the fruit, but sweeter.

Those days of citrus reigning supreme are gone. But for Lee Barron, a descendant of influential Tampa Bay citrus growers, her quest to preserve the past is just beginning.

Lee Barron wants to track down the lost citrus labels from her family’s companies.

“This is part of Florida’s history, not just my family’s history,” she said.

Read more at the Tampa Bay Times.