Runyon turns old tapes into lasting keepsakes

By Lane Tongate | July 22, 2026 |

By Lane Tongate
Candace (Kruse) Runyon spent eight years teaching Hancock County High School kids how to build websites and design graphics. These days, she’s using those same skills to save something a lot more precious. She’s turning old VHS tapes into keepsakes families can watch for generations to come.
Runyon, who now works as a communications and technology specialist for Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, converts VHS tapes, smaller VHS-C tapes, and DVDs onto flash drives, preserving home movies before time and old tape decks take them away for good.

From Hobby to Side Hustle
Runyon’s business didn’t start out as a business at all. About five years ago, her father-in-law passed away suddenly, and his out-of-town family showed up with two or three totes full of old home videos. For a long while, those tapes just sat around the house. “Every time… we would just be like, we need to do something with these,” Runyon said. “These are just, you know, sitting here, sitting here.” She looked into professional conversion services and got a little sticker shock at the prices.

So she decided to figure it out herself. “I was like, I’m going to see if I can do it myself… thanks to the internet and, you know, Professor YouTube,” Runyon said. “I ordered the equipment. I still had my childhood VCR… and then I started converting them.”
Ace Legacy Archives & Design was born.

Her first customer was her great aunt and godmother, Judy Gray, who had her son Danny Gray’s wedding video converted as a Christmas present. “My great aunt and godmother… was my very first client last year, and so I converted her son Danny Gray’s wedding video, and she gave it to him for Christmas that following year,” Runyon said.

Runyon figures she’s converted close to 500 tapes at this point, with a 50-tape order she’s just about finished. “I’ve done probably close to 500 tapes at this point now, which is crazy,” Runyon said. “I’m about to wrap up like a 50-tape order.”

Word started with hometown folks, friends’ parents and people back in Breckinridge County, and has since spread by word of mouth, even though Runyon now calls Louisville home. “At first, yes, it was mostly hometown people,” Runyon said. “Since word has gotten out… I live here in Louisville, so I’ve done a few here… and a few orders in Breckinridge County… word of mouth is starting to work in my advantage.”

The Process
The process is simple and takes patience. “I plug in a flash drive, and then I play the tape and hit record, and it records it all on a little flash drive,” Runyon said. “I give all the original tapes back… and I also give them the option if they want more than one copy.”
She’s kept her prices low on purpose: $15 per tape and $10 per flash drive.
“My main thing was I wanted to make it affordable for people because everything’s expensive now,” Runyon said. “I did my research to make sure that it was basically the cheapest out there.”
She’ll even work with families a few tapes at a time if money’s tight. “If you can only afford like three tapes at a time, and you’re not in a rush… I’ll just do three at a time,” Runyon said, “and then we’ll work on that.”

Purpose Driven

For Runyon, this isn’t just about old technology. It’s about the people on those tapes. “You never have too many pictures of your grandma,” Runyon said. “That’s what this is all about, is just to preserve your one life and one version of everybody in your life.”

Her favorites to work on are the Christmas morning tapes. “My favorite tapes to save are Christmas. You see the joy of someone getting their perfect gift, and you can just feel the love in the room,” Runyon said. “Those are definitely my favorite to watch.” She’s heard plenty of stories from grateful customers, including kids seeing a grandparent for the very first time. “I had someone yesterday say, ‘My dad passed away, and my kids never got to meet him,’ and so they got to see… a little piece of him,” Runyon said. “That’s what I’m there for.”

A Full Plate
Runyon isn’t doing this full time. She’s squeezing it in around a full-time job and a toddler at home. “I work at Broadway Baptist Church as a communications and technology specialist. I do their social media, update their website, I do all their print materials,” Runyon said. Before that, she spent eight years teaching at Hancock County High School.
Runyon met her husband John online and moved to Louisville in 2019. These days, her daughter Charlotte, almost two now, keeps things busy at home, which means the tape conversions happen after bedtime.

Don’t Wait Too Long
Runyon has picked up some hard-won knowledge about how tapes age. Most start to break down after 20 to 30 years, though she’s noticed the smaller VHS-C tapes tend to go faster than full-size VHS. “They say once you hit like 20 to 30 years, it really starts to age,” Runyon said. “From my personal experience, the smaller VHS-C tapes actually seem to be aging faster.”

Her advice for storing old tapes: keep them somewhere temperature-controlled, out of the sunlight and away from heat and moisture. A closet works fine. A hot garage does not. And if you’ve got a box of unlabeled tapes in the attic, don’t sit on it. “Obviously, the sooner the better,” Runyon said. “The best time to have converted those was yesterday, but the second is, you know, today.”
For the record, if a tape turns out to be something other than home movies, like an old recorded ballgame instead of family footage, Runyon won’t convert it, and she won’t charge for it either.

Hancock County Pride
Tapes aren’t the only thing Runyon has been making lately. She’s also branched out into stickers, posters, and magnets featuring local landmarks like the old US 60 sign, Vastwood Park, and Jeffrey’s Cliffs.
“Hancock County needs a little pretty, so that’s when I started designing little stickers and posters and magnets of Hancock County memorabilia,” Runyon said. She’s always looking for new ideas, too. “I’m always open to design suggestions for my stickers,” Runyon said. “So if people have ideas, I would love to hear from them.”

Runyon will have her posters, magnets, and stickers set up at the Lewisport Flea and Farmers Market in downtown Lewisport on July 25, and she’s happy to talk tapes or take drop-offs while she’s there.

For Hancock County readers who might remember her, Runyon is the daughter of Sid and Sheila Kruse, and the granddaughter of Faye Gray and Marietha Kruse. Her great aunt and first customer, Judy Gray, still holds a special place in how this whole thing got started.
Candace Runyon can be reached through Facebook at Ace Legacy Archives & Design or stop by her booth at the Lewisport Flea and Farmers Market in Lewisport on July 25th from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can also reach Candace by email at [email protected].

Posted in Local News 2